Raise dead
- Thread starter estwheadn
- Start date
-
The masquerade of murder returns! A new game of Vampires Amongst Us has begun. Unmask the killers, trust no one, and try to survive the night. Find out more and sign up now!
Pirate Robot Ninja of Death
Vampire Thrall
1) always summon zombies
2) summon them in a single rank for maximum blocking potential
3) summon that single rank sideways for an effective instant conga-line
4) summon them in ranks of 5 if you want to try and disrupt ranks/steadfast (will probably need to be hit with an invocation first, unless you rolled bonkers high).
5) always keep in mind that this is the MOST POWERFUL SPELL in our lore, by a long shot. Raising chaff in people's way, and at 18" range to boot, is a fucking fantastic ability.
2) summon them in a single rank for maximum blocking potential
3) summon that single rank sideways for an effective instant conga-line
4) summon them in ranks of 5 if you want to try and disrupt ranks/steadfast (will probably need to be hit with an invocation first, unless you rolled bonkers high).
5) always keep in mind that this is the MOST POWERFUL SPELL in our lore, by a long shot. Raising chaff in people's way, and at 18" range to boot, is a fucking fantastic ability.
With true los, zombies raised in a cannon's way will rarely actually block its line of sight to anything, no matter how well you roll. More of a chance than skittles, which practically never block los, but unless you roll well enough to get like, three ranks, they'll probable be able to shine a laser pointer between some gap between models to get to you.
I have turned loses into wins with this one spell. Most memorable game was vs Daemons. Slaanesh magic shutdown key units, effectively cutting my army in half and ruined my tactics. My vampire and his ghoul unit got caught out in the mid-field with their pants down and locked into combat with a plaguebearer unit that I failed to redirect because the dire wolves got killed off by magic right away. Raise Dead and a suicidal T-bat turned the tide. T-bat charged and screamed at a Keeper of Secrets, pinning it down. By the time T-bat was dead, KoS was at 1 wound. Finished the KoS off with a Gaze of Nagash. But the raise dead got off 3 times in a row, blocking the 6 man Bloodchrushers trying to rear charge my general's unit. Bought him the time to finish off the Plaguebearers and then reform and take the Bloodchrushers head on. Turned what should of been a loss into a solid victory.
Yeah it is a game changing spell, I don't get to cast it often as my gaming group have grown to hate it. But even though they stop me casting it, it is still helping my game as by putting aside 3 power dice to cast it allows me to get of van hels and invocation unhindered as they save the dispel dice to make certain raise dead is dispelled they fear it that much. I've played game where raise dead has won me the game and I haven't even managed to cast it the whole game
Pirate Robot Ninja of Death
Vampire Thrall
Yeah Raise Dead straight up wins games. However you can tailor your game plan based on whether or not your opponent has realized that.
Opponent is scared of vanhels and invocation? Cool...you can use Raise Dead to control the board.
Opponent scared of Raise Dead? Cool...you use that to ram through invocations, vanhels, and Curse of Years. CoY is an AWESOME spell if your opponent is letting it through to save dice for later. Basically means you get to spend a handful of dice in your phase to eat a handful of dice in theirs, which is a trade I will take any day of the week.
I love that factor of lore of vampires! You can do so much with it and it's very adaptable if you plan your tactics around it like that.
Seriously. LoV doesn't seem to come out at the top of most 'best' or 'strongest' lore lists, but I really find it to be spectacular in the quality and versatility of the effects it grants access to, and raise dead is definitely one of the star players in that.
Pirate Robot Ninja of Death
Vampire Thrall
Because it doesn't "earn points." The lores that garner all the attention are the 6-dice win spells, like Life, Death, Shadow, and to a lesser extent Light. Those are the sorts of spells you see people just hammering away at in a 20-0 system trying to get lucky and net themselves some VPs.
Vampires is a toolkit lore though, like Heavens, High, Gut, etc. It's got great synergy with the army, and relies more on spamming lots of small spells than 6-dicing a big one. Makes it hard for an opponent not intimately familiar with your book and your build to know what to stop. If you're running infantry blocks with shadow, a nurgle prince on death, or a bret character wall with beasts, then everyone knows how your magic phases will go from the moment they look at your list.
It's funny how often people will let a spell pass in favour of stopping a more 'scary' one, realise their mistake once you've used it effectively.
They stop that one next turn/game and let another through.
I have people ask me my spell list every turn and how many dice I've got (Black Periphat included) and get so scared they hold off dispels until they have dice left and I have none.
But most have learned, stop raise dead, and curse of years, but then IoN, Vanhel's, hellish vig, etc.
It's a little bit bluffing, using what you get effectively, and annoying someone so much with a spell you don't actually want that they focus on it.
They stop that one next turn/game and let another through.
I have people ask me my spell list every turn and how many dice I've got (Black Periphat included) and get so scared they hold off dispels until they have dice left and I have none.
But most have learned, stop raise dead, and curse of years, but then IoN, Vanhel's, hellish vig, etc.
It's a little bit bluffing, using what you get effectively, and annoying someone so much with a spell you don't actually want that they focus on it.
Last edited:
Our lore is very powerful in the hands of an experienced general. It can do a lot of different things, all of which can be game changing as long as you know how to turn the spells into threats. Curse of Years is powerful when cast on any large unit or a unit that is heavily armored, but you cast it on a poorly chosen target, and its seemingly less powerful. This sort of poorly casting our spells could give some players the impression our lore is not very useful.