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Razorfate

Skeleton
Feb 16, 2015
54
Istanbul
Hi,

I am new to the vampire counts and building my army from scratch.
I got a total of 40 skeletons ready to assemble and i was going to givem them hand weapons and shields to get the parry save.
But when i saw a couple of threads suggesting to give skeletons spears, i got a little bit confused. I know if you get mindrazor on skeletons, it would be devastating but opponents usually sees that coming and keep their dispel dice just for this ( And this in itself can be a viable tactic to cast the other spells.)

So what i got to do about the skeletons?
 

Cela Shyish

Grave Guard
Dec 14, 2012
284
We have plenty of things in our army that can do damage without expensive magic or that would benefit more from the buffs. So in most circumstances it comes down to if you have mortis engines. If you will have them near a mortis engine or two then the parry is almost redunant so may as well take spears, however if you don't then its surprising how much of a differencethe parry makes. Remember skeles are designed to be a tarpit that doesn't bleed too much combat res so dangerous units can support them. Spears in general would do very little damage as WS2 S3 attacks aren't exactly dangerous to much barring lucky rolls. However even S10 attacks can be turned aside by a lucky 6 on a parry.
 
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Draykorinee

Grave Guard
Sep 10, 2014
213
Yes, had/shield is always my preference, last game I saved 8 skeletons over the fight with parry.
 

hairyjeff

Crypt Horror
May 10, 2011
579
Spears have only worked out for me in huge (60+ ) units. otherwise, the parry is more valuable.
 

The Sun King

Moderator
Staff member
True Blood
Aug 22, 2012
4,989
Copenhagen
Crystal has the right of it. If you field Mortis Engines go spears, if not go Sword and Board (unless you want to go the Mindrazor route).
 

Razorfate

Skeleton
Feb 16, 2015
54
Istanbul
I do not like to base my strategy on one spell because my magic phases usually go with low dice, i do not at the moment have mortis engine (bought two terrorghesits insead), but i defienetly will buy one because i love the model.
The wise inside of me suggests me to wait for the AoS before going forward with the army, but the other one urges me to make those very nice mantic skeletons...
AoS better come soon...
 

Lord Elpus

Ghoul
Mar 19, 2012
176
I run large (ish) blocks of skellies and my own personal preference is using spear and shield, they are a bit more of an anvil unit that way, I find the parry save negligible at best.
 

Razorfate

Skeleton
Feb 16, 2015
54
Istanbul
What shuould be the minimum number of skeletons with hand weapons and/or spears? Maybe i can make some of the models like 15 of them with spears and fill the unit to 30 models with unit fillers.
 

der vued

Ghoul
Jun 27, 2014
106
Munich
skellies (with either s&b or spear) are to deliver your vamp break sreadfast. 30 sre not sufficient no matter how you equip them.
 

The Sun King

Moderator
Staff member
True Blood
Aug 22, 2012
4,989
Copenhagen
Normally I just make half my skeleton with spears and the other half with sword and board, that way I can make the first half of the unit the part that counts.
 

Sception

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Sep 23, 2009
2,714
I went spear for aesthetics, but yeah, the point of skittles is to break steadfast and deliver characters without hemorrhaging too much combat res. For that, you want to be deep, not wide, and the 6+ parry save is going to save you more combat res than 5 extra WS2, S3 attacks have any real hope of generating.

So yeah, the default is to field them five wide, full command, hand weapons and shields, and at least 8 deep, preferably 10 deep, with a vampire lord with the works (red fury in particular) in the front rank, unless you're fielding mortis engines, in which case you can go with spears, but honestly even then there's enough flaming attacks out there that the hand weapons might still be a better call.

Note, however, that neither is a huge deal. The hand weapons aren't so much better than the spears that you need to feel bad about building them with spears if you prefer them for purely aesthetic reasons. I knew hand weapons were better and still built mine with spears for looks, and run them as they're modeled without feeling bad about it.

and if you run them in age of sigmar, the spears are actually arguably the better option
 

Razorfate

Skeleton
Feb 16, 2015
54
Istanbul
I will wait to sort it out what i will gonna do from now on.
I did not like AOS as neither my gaming group in general. It is not certain if we will go play 8th or switch to KOW. I hope that somehow international gaming community would support 8th edition but i am not sure if anyone wants to follow an unsupported game anymore. If ETC organization would still have whfb in their tournament then the coummunity might still play our beloved game and player interest does not dwindle.

In this situation i will go with hand weapons but otherwise ı could try the phalanx rules in KOW.
 

Ohcyt

Zombie
Jul 17, 2015
5
Vancouver
Sun King said it. Equip half and half. Let your front ranks be the deciding factor. Games change. Tearing models apart and repainting is a pain.

In WHFB 8th they are both just terrible combat infantry. One slightly more offensive one slightly more defence oriented. If pressed I go with the parry.
 

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