sorry for the double post, but can't edit mine for some reason
Ive been playing this list for a couple month, got about ~15 games in with it. I like to think it's unconventional and style pts worthy while being competitive but not cheesy.
Ghoul King (Red fury, beguile, dragonbane gem, sword of might, dispel scoll)
Master Necromancer (Level 4 wizard, master of the dead, power stone, lore of vampires)
Vampire (Fear incarnate, heavy armour, enchanted shield, biting blade, cursed bool, lore of shadow)
20 zombies (musician)
21 skeletons (fc, screaming banner)
31 ghouls (ghast)
2x5 dire wolves
2x2 fell bats
3x1 spirit hosts
8 crypt horrors
2x1 varghulfs
1 terrorgheist
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variants:
- characters: in previous incarnations i experimented with a wraith or banshee in the skeleton unit, or sometimes riding with the horrors, in place of 2nd varghulf. sometimes would run a L1 necromancer with channeling staff, but i found he was a 80pt unreliable PD generator; never casted. Maybe once trying to spirit leech when i took death on him.
- hexwraiths: ran them early on too, and am still considering dropping 1 varghulf for them.
- corpse cart: again, in place of varghulf. attracts a lot of attention, has won me games versus high elves and lizardmen
characters
- sgk: originally ran him as a blender; but got frustrated 1+ rerollable armor saves. sword of might is a nice balance; still wounding T4 rnf on 2s, and have a better chance of punching through amour. sadly this build, especially without OTS, can't do much to a 1+/reverse++ pendant of khaleth
- master
necro: always vamp lore. power stone is so critical.
- hero vamp: previously made him L2; no pts for it now, never bothered with BSB. always with the cursed book. 3+ for a modicum of protection against RnF. used to run with quickblood too but chopped it to fit 2nd varg and fell bats. usually runs in skeletons for synergy with screaming banner; but against enemies where the skells will be a liability i run him with sgk in ghouls for a quasi-deathstar. shadow is great: ive gotten lucky and rolled pit when fighting ogre deathstars and slaan-saurus heavy lists, wither/enfeeble are great magic defense since they are RiP, and miasma is always useful. would consider experimenting with death, as D&D or soulblight would be great to have too!
core
- in general a bit small, but i like using the diversity of models
- ghouls: really just an sgk delivery system. run the 7 wide by default; i found going to 45-40 to
horde usually too unweildly
- skeletons: a backup unit to protect
necro zombie bunker, but sometimes used as frontline when there is some some juicy 1A infantry or not-too-heavy cav to deal with. holding them back lets me pump them up to ~30-35 before they see combat with motd
- dire wolves: purpose spent by end of deployment phase. usually have them hugging flank to redirect knights and other flanks. key to their use is not being too aggressive and throwing them away needlessly. id pay 12pts/model if they were fast cav
- zombies: bunker. nuff said. musi for swift reforms, which is critical. drop a skelly for a banner if expected bng scenario
special
- horrors: my anvil. i love them. not invincible, but can sure as hell take a beating. great synergy with IoN and VDM. if no templates to be worried of, SGK sometimes goes here to add serious killing power. 4x2 is great as hordes trying to hide a weak character on the corner still get 6 attacks coming on them (assuming both units maximized)
- hosts: no comment necessary. could drop to 2 and take 3rd bat for points, as there are usually only 2 big threats to hold up (mournfang, knights, stanks, etc)
- bats: always my first drops in the middle back, sometimes intermingled with wolves. sometimes actually make it behind enemy lines and take out wms! great redirectors as well
rare
- terrorgheist: takes a lot of finesse, and eats all artillery fire from players who know what they're doing. early games i woudl just sacrifice him by getting up in the face of a juicy target, screaming at it, and hoping for the best. now i use him a lot more conservatively (especially if no warmachines/pits/amber spears threatening him) and wait until turn 3/4 to scream but keep his points
- varghulfs: great. usually run in a pair on a flank im trying to roll up. still has trouble with 1+as units, but other than screaming or throwing the characters in they are my best method for holding up. having no flanks/rear has been helpful on a number of occaisons. wish they had the hunger, and a higher ld for redirecting
can die in 1 round if he fluffs, so a bit unreliable. prefer them over vargheists for 1) small footprint 2) no frenzy baiting 3) regen and T5 so they dont bleed CR
weaknesses
- armor. not much other than characters can punch through 1+ AS's with any consistency. dropping varghulf for hexwraiths is the path id consider to deal with this. another option ive been toying with is making the vamp forbidden lore (metal; aim for -1AS, enchanted blades, or any of the missiles/dd if actually have armor to deal with) or (bests; aim for wyssans, horrors, amber spear, kadon) and L2
- squishy general/killing blow. T5, regen, beguile only gets you so far. people give me a hard time but i'll never drop the ghoul king
will also never pay for quickblood or a ward. im 1-3 vs dark elves, because basically my opponent puts KB on whatever the SGK is up against
- fear-immune. i have a decent amount of points invested in fear-bombing (banner and fear incarnate). having the wraiths around in a unit for terror was great, only played daemons and
TK once, no civil war (yet!). even with fear incarnate and screaming; cold-blooded and L10 units still consistently pass fear. alot of the time by juuust enough. If i had the points for AoDM on vamp I'd take it in a hearbeat!
- flaming. terrorgheist and varghulfs dont like fire! (neither did the corpse cart). most people forget dragonbane gem on SGK, so ive mitigated damage having him challenge a dragon-egg-eating DE noble or firebellies
strengths
- deployment. i have ~7
chaff units (spirit hosts get held back when there something essential to target like hydras, stanks, mournfang), so im usually controlling the matchups. pretty essential to this list
- fearbomb. situational but can lead to 30 skels + vamp hero butchering elite HE infantry
(well TBH this was back when i hard to corpse cart too -- whats that, your swordmasters are hitting me on 4s with no reroll?? XD)
- semi-magic defensive via RiP spell spam. I always take CoY if possible, unless going against MSU. Cursed book has a 50% chance of pulling out a RiP spell, and the hero vamp has 33% chance of getting another RiP from shadow lore.
random success stories:
- horrors eat a dual charge from 2 HE lion chariots. kill 1 and break the other over another couple rounds.
- same horrors, after eating chariots, wipe out a unit of 50 HE spearmen *WITH FLAMING BANNER* over 4-5 combat phases. curse of the midnight wind from cursed book was amazing here; ~40 hits, ~5 wounds, now reroll them
he would get 1-2 wound per phase, while i was killing ~10 models/phase easily, if not more.
- varghulf eating a CoK charge and ripping it apart before it even strikes
- every time the terrorgheist makes his regen versus a fatal spell / artillery shot, 10 adorable kittens are born
- the fear-bomb. when it goes off, its great to watch inner circle knight buses break versus skeletons
