Official Rumour Thread: New Vampire Counts Book

[Tim]

Hey guys,

i bet arkhan the black is coming back. Do you remember him on his chariot? Sorry, but i don't know how it is called in english. In german it is a "Schrecken der Unterwelt", so in english it could be called "terror of the underworld". And there is no offical mini at the moment. AND it could be the second option in a dual black coach kit! How do you think about that?

(Sorry for my english, but i am better reading than in writing this language! )

Here's a link to remember arkhan! http://whfb.lexicanum.de/wiki/Datei:Arkhan_der_Schwarze.jpg

Arkhan the Black was brought back in the Tomb Kings 8th ed. book, although that would not necessary exclude him from the 8 th ed. Vampire Counts book, I don't think it will happen. I do hope for it though. I recently got the old Arkhan Black model incl. chariot from Ebay.(making my collection of undead book characters almost complete) I like your idea but I think GW keeps the plastic kits to generic hero's and lord's. Fineca$t is for the special Characters?

I would love to see some Lord level Necromancers and Liches to make a reappearance in the vampire counts army list.

In the Tomb Kings book you could argue there is a hint about the return of Nagash, not claiming there is myself, just saying.

 

[Solomon Kane]

Maybe some kind of siege engine with this dual black coach kit? Everybody seems to have one these days except us (And maybe wood elves) so maybe something similar to screaming skull but throwing whole zombies instead of just skulls. That or a wight chariot. As for the cavalry release I doubt black knights will go or that we will get another cav choice so probably just a revamp to wight cav or something. I'm a little skeptical about flesh golems because they're undead so they will be slow and probably not all that killy so they will likely be ressed to death by infantry. Unless they're more of a support unit perhaps with people saying they're not like any other monstrous infantry.

I don't think skellies should be made any better to compensate for ghouls awesomeness they should just be 6pts like the TK ones! same statline (Pretty sure anyway) and we are being overcharged for them. Maybe the ZD will be more viable now too? It's no good in less than 3000pts and even then TG is better so hopefully with this new kit we will see new stats or just point decrease to make it worthwhile?

 

[Tim]

Yeah the zombie dragon needs work, it's too costly for what it does and in combination with our already expensive lords not viable in most games. Would be nice to be able to field it as a rare pick or maybe as a hero mount too.

 

[duck83]

Nay, it won't ever be a hero char mount choice I think. But the slight boost in it's stats would be really, really cool.

And on the other hand, the four horsemen of apocalypse concept sounds incredibly awesome.

 

[duck83]

I've just red the rumours on warseer. New cavalery is most possibly going to be dual kit. SO, if it is right (I'm not that totally sure about this dual-kit-cavalery rumour), then my bet goes on Skeleton horsemen and heavy mounted Wights, by which I mean Black Knights on barded Skeletal steeds.

 

[Kassill]

Hey, maybe it's Nagash's zimmerframe.

:lol:

Maybe it's some kind of castle on wheels.

Note the flesh golem and ghoul driving the castlecart, the dragon tail upgrade and the new style bat swarm.

Bring it on.

Totally awesome. This would make for an awesome conversion haha

 

[gorethumb]

I've just red the rumours on warseer. New cavalery is most possibly going to be dual kit. SO, if it is right (I'm not that totally sure about this dual-kit-cavalery rumour), then my bet goes on Skeleton horsemen and heavy mounted Wights, by which I mean Black Knights on barded Skeletal steeds.

maybe theyll toss some wings in there. Im in favor of the riders of the storm thing!

 

[HERO]

hmm... checking... checking...

AHA!

WD380, page.4, rightmost picturetext: "The Blood Dragon Vampire has a number of different head and weapon options to choose from".

Main text next to it says: "...with the option of being ridden by a foul Ghoul King or martial Blood Dragon..."

Also, page.5, rightmost picturetext: "A Ghoul King is a Vampire Lord with the Ghoulkin Vampiric Power, a potent sire of the Strigoi bloodline."

page.18, blurb, titled "Blood Dragons":
"Fearsome warriors in life even before recieving the blood kiss, Blood Dragon Vampires are paragons of martial prowess and terrible foes in battle. These warrior-Vampires aspire to equal the feats of mighty Abhorash, the first and greatest of their kind, who slew a fearsome Dragon and drank its lifeblood, thus conquering his thirst for all time."

Same page, main text: "...Unlike the Zombie Dragon, which is ridden by a noble Vampire Lord, the Terrorgheist is a mount for a wretched Ghoul King, a Vampire of the Strigoi bloodline..." and continuing to the next page "...'I wanted the Ghoul King ot share some similarities with the Crypt Ghouls, but still share elements of the proud, noble Vampire it once was', explains Alex, who also designed the Strigoi rider..."

pg. 22, blurb, titled "The Strigoi":
"The scions of fallen Strigois, these pallid, hateful creatures are known as Ghoul Kings to the men of the Empire, and with good reason. Degenerate Vampires both feared and hated by mortal and even others of their kin, Ghoul Kings preside over macabre courts of Ghouls and other eaters of the dead."

I haven't looked through the entire book, but things look rather clear: GW were keeping their bloodlines in mind when they designed the Zombie Dragon/Terrorgheist kit. It remains to be seen which system they eventually settle on, but regardless of their choice, the future is looking bright(which, seeing how they're Vampires, might not necessarily be a good thing ).

Looks like GW intends on keeping Bloodlines!

 

[Mudd the Mighty]

Yea and if you read the Nagash trilogy then you may have noticed that they also trashed the 7th edition lore for the classic lore. I'm thinking that the new book will be more in the lines of the. 4th and 5th. Seeing as how flesh golems and what not are necromancer toys maybe also a strong necro feel too.

 

[SoulSeeker]

Looks like GW intends on keeping Bloodlines!

This is fluff. There is stacks of fluff on bloodlines in the current book, but no actual rules. So this proves nothing. Sorry.

 

[Fenrir]

When is this rumoured to come out then? Jan?

I suppose I'll hae a look when it arrives, but finding it difficult to get worked up about a new book coming, as I don't have much faith in the people at GW's design studio.

 

[darragh]

i just hope it deals with the problems of the current book an does not follow the same road to as tomb kings throw in some plastic black nights and black coach an i will be a happy camper though i do not place much faith in games workshop at the minute fingers crossed for vampuary

 

[Sanai]

Personally, I will just be happy to see new plastic kits to replace the old, incredibly dated stuff we are stuck with for certain options (Black knights, fell bats, bat swarms, zombies, wight kings, spirit hosts)

Edit: Just had a thought about the rumoured new riders, which people say may be a dual kit- what if they are bat riders? Instant dual kit, assemble with riders for flying cav, without riders for fellbats- actually, thats just like the stalkers/necro knights really, one is the beast as a beastie on its own, the other is a ridden version.

 

[SoulSeeker]

You would think that the priority would be replacing the crappy old zombies, bats, etc. But that's not what happened with TK - they still have the old skeletons and even older skeleton steeds. Instead they got the goofy snake riders. I don't want to be pessimistic, but it's hard not to be given GW's recent track record.

 

[Sanai]

I find it easy not to be pessimistic. I see no point in getting all upset and unhappy over little details of a game. Wailling in a white dress on the cliffside and threatening to dash myself against the rocks won't make any difference to what is or isn't. (Though it would look cool and be wonderfully dramatic)
In other words, Games Workshop will do what they will, and Ill enjoy it to the fullest instead of worrying about the negatives.

 

[Axel von Drittauge]

Personally I think the snake riders look pretty cool. Though you're right they probebly won't give us new zombie models, but hey mantic has some cool stuff going on in that deparment! As for new models, have you seen the new ZD/TG? I was already sold on VC but that was definatly something to be happy about when making my choice!

 

[Fenrir]

I see no point in getting all upset and unhappy over little details of a game.

I should clarify that my post was neither upset or unhappy. It's probably more apathetic.

 

[darragh]

we could really use new plastics a lot of our choices are made redundant by either lack of models availability or the fact that some models are just really outdated an ugly eg zombies an bat swarms i sincerly doubt that we will get a major plastic over haul like dark eldar did but its nice to dream

 

[Trevy the Great]

Considering that Games-Workshop is on a campaign of replacing metal units (like they did with the Tomb Guard), I think that at least some plastic Black Knights are a pretty good bet. They are on a "hate on pewter" crusade at the moment.

 

[darragh]

thats true and i highly doubt we will be seeing any finecast black coaches ,blacknights,fell bats,bat swarms or spirit hosts maybe we will see plastc redos with the next army wave or its possible they might drop some of these units entirely come to think of it while i was lookin through the sales area at games day uk they had a stand where you could purchas models that were usually only available direct from the website they had everything from blood bowl teams to mordheim warbands but nothing from the vamp range of mail order products a staff member asked me if i was looking for anything in particular so i asked him for a black coach an he just said no sorry we dont have any he didnt even need to check maybe he was just blowing me off or maybe its an indication that they are doing something with these models surely if they were still being produced or even scrapped altogether they would be trying to flog off the last of their stock

 

[Grish]

Wrong thread to post this question vonBlack. This is to discuss upcoming book rumours; can someone move this post into a separate thread and we can help you out there

[mod]Post split of into a separate thread

~ Bishop[/mod]

 

[Sception]

vonBlacke: I just quoted your post in a new thread on the bloodline board, and rambled out a reply at length as is my habit.

On Topic: I hope they make skellies better, not just cheaper. With their current stats they'd be little more then tarpits or bunkers, no matter how cheap you made them. I'd like them to be a functional part of a battle line, something you could engage in multiple combats or could stick a melee hero in and have a hope in hell of winning a round against other melee infantry. Zombies are already a tarpit only unit, leaving skeletons as the same is redundant.

Improvements could come from better stats, or even just some reliable & redily accessible buff options not otherwise available to better units. But something. Something that would make it so slamming a hard hitting unit into the side of an enemy engaged with skeletons would be something an enemy would fear, not something they'd laugh at as they racked up free kills on the expensive unit by murdering the skeletal trash.

 

[darragh]

i agree malisteen something really needs to be done with skellies we dont need 2 tar pit units as it stands skellies just take up space that could given to more ghouls its also very difficult to build a themed army when the only intelligent core choice are units of ghouls making them cheaper wont fix the problem if u took a hundred you still probably wont kill anything everything they so up against will have higher ws, bs, armour saves and intiative and thats before special rules such as asf i pray every night that gw will make them better for a new army book release i dont want an army full of ghouls not that i have a problem with them their ace i just want a bit more variety without being punished for it

 

[Mr Saturday]

I have to agree on the skeleton warriors. They are next to useless at the moment, bar the odd bunker. This with the proviso that I REALLY like skeleton warriors as a unit, but in 8th they don't even cause the enemy to break stride.

 

[Tim]

vonBlacke: I just quoted your post in a new thread on the bloodline board, and rambled out a reply at length as is my habit.

On Topic: I hope they make skellies better, not just cheaper. With their current stats they'd be little more then tarpits or bunkers, no matter how cheap you made them. I'd like them to be a functional part of a battle line, something you could engage in multiple combats or could stick a melee hero in and have a hope in hell of winning a round against other melee infantry. Zombies are already a tarpit only unit, leaving skeletons as the same is redundant.

Improvements could come from better stats, or even just some reliable & redily accessible buff options not otherwise available to better units. But something. Something that would make it so slamming a hard hitting unit into the side of an enemy engaged with skeletons would be something an enemy would fear, not something they'd laugh at as they racked up free kills on the expensive unit by murdering the skeletal trash.

Well with the current rules the only thing they would really need is for fear to trigger more often, making them fight better as result.
When fear was really scary, win + outnumber = break, skeletons did exactly what they needed to do.

The only way I can see without creating new special rules or items is change the undead rule to; when you lose combat. E.g. not take x wounds where x is the difference of the combat result instead; For example first round of combat is max 1, 2nd round is 2 and so on. Or roll a d6 or d3 to modify the wounds received when you lose combat.
They gave the Tomb Kings constructs a default -1 wounds, they could do something similar to the VC undead rule.
At least this way you have more chances to stay in combat longer and trigger fear more to have a fighting chance.