Alright, so it's been some time since I've played 40k or fantasy and I am highly considering Vampire Counts since 40k has essentially priced itself out of being a worthwhile game, and VC were always one of my favorites (aside from Brets).
I'm not sure if this would be the correct place to be posting this as it kind of spans over multiple forums worth of questions. Forgive my ignorance.
So, anyway, a direwolf rush army running Vampires as primary spell casters using Summon Creatures of the Night. The Direwolves would be used for flanking, harassing, and all around swamping the enemy, while the Vamps would be in Black Knight units and be the fist aspect of the design. Hexwraiths if the point cost of the game were to be high enough, and perhaps Vargheists, as their statline to point ratio seems to place them at being better units than Varghulfs or Terrorghiests. Anyway, the entire army would be mobile, and the entire core would be composed of Direwolves.
So would the structure be viable? It worked well for me a long time ago when I used the tactics, but I'm not sure if the new rulebooks would allow it to work.
In addition: The various enemies I may face would likely be able to field things such as bows, or worse yet the horrifying hordes. How many units would I likely be looking at facing of various armies in, say, a 1000 or 2000 point game? As long as the number of units I have outmatches the number they have, I can at least bog them down with wolves (archers being a primary target for one unit, units of many models being perfect for two or so units, and CC units being the target of Black Knights and direwolves both).
In essence would I be looking at being outnumbered by units or outnumbering their units? Assume 25% with 6 wolves to a unit, 2 deep since the rules should allow them supporting attacks.
I looked through the army book and mostly found units I wouldn't be using, primarily due to speed. So the list of primary units for the structure would be: Direwolves, Black Knights, Hexwraiths, Vargheists. While the list of secondary units would be: Varghulfs, Terrorgheists, Black Coaches, Fell Bats and the Mortis Engine. Most of the mounts were acceptable, aside from the Terrorgheist (which is strigoi, and I'm going more for a martial lahmian feel; speed, power, and appeal). Blood Knights are right out because of the fluff side of things, which makes them more Blood Dragons/Thinking unenthralled beings, and while whipping the horror-show cousins into battle is one thing, brokering deals with the Blood Dragons is quite another, and I'd see them as suspicious allies at best.
When coming up with this iteration of the idea I had a tough time deciding on whether or not to bother with mop-up units like Graveguard, but I found that, if anything, their slow speed (unless I start using spells on them) would lead to a drain from the front of the assault, and while they could easily slaughter their foes when they reach them, it'd be better to take 2 units of direwolves and a unit of black knights to the blocks right off the bat than to let the wolves sit around dying every turn while the guard walk on.
I'm not sure if this would be the correct place to be posting this as it kind of spans over multiple forums worth of questions. Forgive my ignorance.
So, anyway, a direwolf rush army running Vampires as primary spell casters using Summon Creatures of the Night. The Direwolves would be used for flanking, harassing, and all around swamping the enemy, while the Vamps would be in Black Knight units and be the fist aspect of the design. Hexwraiths if the point cost of the game were to be high enough, and perhaps Vargheists, as their statline to point ratio seems to place them at being better units than Varghulfs or Terrorghiests. Anyway, the entire army would be mobile, and the entire core would be composed of Direwolves.
So would the structure be viable? It worked well for me a long time ago when I used the tactics, but I'm not sure if the new rulebooks would allow it to work.
In addition: The various enemies I may face would likely be able to field things such as bows, or worse yet the horrifying hordes. How many units would I likely be looking at facing of various armies in, say, a 1000 or 2000 point game? As long as the number of units I have outmatches the number they have, I can at least bog them down with wolves (archers being a primary target for one unit, units of many models being perfect for two or so units, and CC units being the target of Black Knights and direwolves both).
In essence would I be looking at being outnumbered by units or outnumbering their units? Assume 25% with 6 wolves to a unit, 2 deep since the rules should allow them supporting attacks.
I looked through the army book and mostly found units I wouldn't be using, primarily due to speed. So the list of primary units for the structure would be: Direwolves, Black Knights, Hexwraiths, Vargheists. While the list of secondary units would be: Varghulfs, Terrorgheists, Black Coaches, Fell Bats and the Mortis Engine. Most of the mounts were acceptable, aside from the Terrorgheist (which is strigoi, and I'm going more for a martial lahmian feel; speed, power, and appeal). Blood Knights are right out because of the fluff side of things, which makes them more Blood Dragons/Thinking unenthralled beings, and while whipping the horror-show cousins into battle is one thing, brokering deals with the Blood Dragons is quite another, and I'd see them as suspicious allies at best.
When coming up with this iteration of the idea I had a tough time deciding on whether or not to bother with mop-up units like Graveguard, but I found that, if anything, their slow speed (unless I start using spells on them) would lead to a drain from the front of the assault, and while they could easily slaughter their foes when they reach them, it'd be better to take 2 units of direwolves and a unit of black knights to the blocks right off the bat than to let the wolves sit around dying every turn while the guard walk on.
