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Bravo_10

Dark Lord of Eternal Sorrow
True Blood
Jul 26, 2010
1,285
Atlanta, Georgia, USA
So, seeing as the new book's been released and our magic item allotment has been cut down like the rest of the 8th edition armies, I've decided to post a thread detailing my thoughts on the usefulness of each of them. Here goes:

1) Skabscrath - Well, this certainly is different than its 7th edition counterpart! The blade that once merely caused terror now provides Frenzy, Devastating Charge, Flaming attacks, and the ability to perform a Death Shriek! I can see a lot of potential here for a close-combat beast with this weapon, seeing as he'll be getting +2 attacks on the charge as well as shrieking his opponents to death while engaged. Still, the point cost is a bit off-putting. It's hugely expensive, and you won't be able to afford much in the way of protection for your lord if he's carrying it around. Granted, we do now have the ability to purchase mundane equipment for our lords in their army list entries, but I'm still not sure about leaving our valuable characters so undefended.

2) Nightshroud - This looks like an excellent piece of armor. Its point cost has doubled since the last book, but it now has the added benefit of removing all Strength bonuses, both magical and mundane, from anyone fighting the bearer. If only it could be used in conjunction with Skabscrath, it would be a most devastating combo. Still, I'd certainly recommend giving it a go, especially against armies who will struggle to damage our Vampires at their base Strength values (i.e. Elves, Empire, etc).

3) Banner of the Barrows - Five points more expensive than it was in the last book, but still basically the same thing. It's an excellent banner, and I'll be using it in every game without exception.

4) Screaming Banner - Now this is an interesting choice indeed. It has the exact same effect as its previous incarnation, but it's now 20 points cheaper! It's so cheap, in fact, that it can be taken by a unit of Skeleton Warriors. Obviously, I have yet to try it out in-game, but I think this item has huge potential in a Skeleton-themed army. After all, the Skellies' major weakness of WS2 can be countered if your opponent fails a fear test, and the Screaming Banner should force them to do so.

5) Black Periapt - Very potent, but also very expensive. I liked it much better when it allowed only a single power or dispel die to be manipulated, albeit at a 40-point cost decrease. It appears to be a substitute for the free MotBA dice we used to get, so if you were a fan of that power, feel free to take it. Personally, I find it a tad to expensive to use in game, as there are other ways to ensure magical superiority.

6) Staff of Damnation - Also a good choice. It's roughly the same point cost as it was in the last book, but there is a subtle difference in its wording that ups its power tremendously. If you look closely, you'll see that it says "All friendly Undead units (and their mounts) within 6" of the bearer gain the Extra Attack special rule until the start of the bearer's next Magic phase." Now there's a big change. Before, it allowed each model within 12" of the caster to make an extra attack in the magic phase. Now, it'll grant extra attacks in both the upcoming close combat phase and the one after to every unit that is even barely within range. Combined with Great Weapon GG, this could be a truly devastating combination.

7) The Cursed Book - Hmm...I'm not really a fan of this one. Essentially, it allows you to sacrifice D3 dice to automatically cast a random spell at its minimum value. For what it does, it's a tad too expensive, and just way too random for my tastes. You could wind up wasting 3 of your dice and giving an your opponent an easy 1 or 2 dice dispel attempt. Personally, I think it's much more useful to just straight-up cast the spell in the first place and at least get the benefit of adding your Wizard Level to the total.

8) Book of Arkhan - Not much to say here. It's cheaper than it was before, and it's only Power Level 3, so it'll give you a nice one-dice casting of VHD 50% of the time. If you liked taking it before, keep using it, but I think I'll stay away from it for the time being.

9) Rod of Flaming Death - So, when I first read this, I was shocked that we would actually pay that many points for a D6 S4 hits magic missile and (practically) automatic panic test. However, the second part of its effect is absolutely devastating, inflicting a S4 hit on every model in the unit if it decides to move in the turn after the spell was cast, much like the Burning Cage spell from the Lore of Fire. I quite like this part, as it limits your opponent's mobility and allows you to get your boys into better tactical positions, which will be slightly more difficult now that we can no longer charge in the Magic Phase with VHD.

So anyway, there you have it. Feel free to argue any or all of the points made above, I'd be interested to see what everyone else thinks of our magic items!
 

Vampire Ron

Grave Guard
Sep 28, 2011
279
To be honest, I like them all. Which is a bg difference to the last book, where there were about 6/7 things that I liked, so I think it's a big improvement. I like the book a bit more than you actually :P The versatility of Melkoth's is great, even if it is only cast at a power level of 5. But the others are great too, and they're much harder to dispel. It gives your opponent a really difficult time deciding whether to dispel tese Vampires spells flying at them, and risk getting something nasty from this put on them...
 

Duke Danse Macabre

The Duke
True Blood
Sep 16, 2010
3,696
Sunderland, United Kingdom
For the most part the magic items are good.
There is no god item like we have seen in the other new books, sure our sword is good but its not all that.
Overall with the gear options on profiles now we have greatly improved, its just unfortunate that we seem to have very little in the way of protection, no ward or regen items.

Also with a few old favorites gone to the winds it stings.
Personally I would of settled for blood keep being open to the whole army.

The Black Periapt is a bit over priced for what it does.....
All things considered now spamming is gone it may prove to be useful but I don't see it being worth its points by any stretch.
Its handy.... Not game changing.

Also the Cursed book, may be useful in low point games, bit of a gimic item allowing casting of spells you normally could not but in big games its just going to hurt you and be easy to dispel, better left at home I think.

Nice work on the review though mate. :thumbsup:
 

Ice Junkie

Zombie
Jan 8, 2012
36
The black periapt was one of my favorite items last edition, easily letting you pocket an extra magic dice or two. right now, i dont think its cheap enough to be worth it.
no more tomb blade though :( a buzzsaw vampire could always get me 6 or 7 extra skeletons in the unit it was in.
I like the Banner of the Barrows, its essentially the same item and its just as good as it was before.

the cursed book seems like a gimmick item, and skabsrath is just too expensive! On something like a ghoul king or in a unit with a wight king, to avoid challenges, I could see how it would be useful.
Overall, my impression of the item changes is that theyre giving everyone the good selection of weapons and armor in the BRB, and then the more gimmicky items in the army rulebooks. the lack of real armor is especially annoying, but honestly anything taken away can be made back up with common items, and no matter what style of play you have there is something you can find that will fit perfectly in your army.
 

HERO

Wight King
Mar 25, 2009
434
As for Vampire Powers, here's what I see:

Master of the Black Arts - Expensive. Re-roll one of the dice when determining Winds of Magic. This can turn your otherwise crappy roll of 6 and 1 into 5 and 6. A lot more dice to break open opponent defenses.

Curse of the Revenant - +1W is nothing to write home about with this price tag.

Red Fury - Great ability, allows you to build combat monsters capable of tearing through entire formations at a time. I like to build my Vampire Lord with the Ogre Blade and just have him go to town with S7. With 5A, each wound you put out generates another attack. Too bad this freshly generated attacks cannot proc the next set.

Flying Horror - You fly. Deal with it.

Quick Blood - The Vampire gains ASF and this is fantastic. I7 Vampire Lords and I6 Vampires put out a decent amount of re-rolls with ASF. Must take on any Vampire involved in close combat, and goes great with Red Fury because it's better than Infinite Hatred vs. equal or lower I targets.

Aura of Dark Majesty - Great price, great effect. The -1 Ld. modifier might not seem like much now, but just you wait..

Dark Acolyte - +D3 to casting total for IoN.

Forbidden Lore - Loses Loremaster and you can take any lore from the BRB except for Life. Still not bad.

Supernatural Horror - Terror. Because Fear isn't good enough apparently.

Fear Incarnate - Absolutely amazing for the price. Your opponents re-roll successful Fear tests. If the BSB is nearby, the re-rolls cancel and your left with 1 fear test. Combine this with Aura of Dark Majesty and things get ridiculous. But wait, there's more....

Beguile - Cheap, -3 Leadership to model in BtB or you re-roll hits.

Master Strike - Trade all attacks for 1 with HKB. Trash. It should of been like the TK book where you nominate one attack to be HKB.

Dreadknight - +2WS, must always issue and accept challenges. Trash, you're already WS7 and if you take this on your general, you're just waiting to get KB'd or killed by a better fighter. This is also counter-intuitive with Red Fury and other combat heavy abilities. I guess I would only take this on a Vamp Lord w/ Glittering Scales on a Zombie Dragon and I'm out to troll things. WS9 with -2 to hit makes anything under WS5 hit you on 7s and lord-class people on 6s.

Summon Creatures of the Night - Cheap, can increase Dire Wolves, Bat Swarms and Fell Bats past their staring size. No one will ever take this because of the price of Fell Bats.

Now that that's done, let's get to the Magic Items:

Skabscratch - Expensive. Gives Frenzy, Devastating Charge, Flaming Attacks and have the Death Shriek rules. If you can't kill a model by the time the game is over, you auto die.

Nightshroud - Necros can wear this too. Can be combined with mundane armor because this is magical, so you can take this on a Vamp Lord on a Zombie Dragon. +1 to AS, enemy models in BtB lose S bonus from things (e.g. Great Weapons), and ASL. Not bad, a little expensive.

Banner of Barrows - +1 to hit for Wight models in close combat. Same as last time, same price even. But this can get better with a few tweaks. Still pretty good though, auto-include on Grave Guard.

Screaming Banner - Enemy Fear tests in combat with the unit rolls 3D6 (extra die) and discard the lowest. OK, surprise is over. Let's sum it up: Aura of Dark Majesty gives -1 Ld., Fear Incarnate stops the BSB re-roll or forces him to re-roll successful Fear tests, Screaming Banner forces Fear tests on 3D6 discard the lowest. WS1 unit vs. a Grave Guard unit with Banner of Barrows anyone? Hit on 2s again while they hit on 5s? Imagine the same combo on a unit of Blood Knights too. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the new Fear-bomb combo.

Black Periphat - Saves 2 dice in PD or DD so you can use them as PD or DD next turn. Decent.

Staff of Damnation - Bound 4, augment, all friendly units within 6" gains Extra Attacks. Pretty boss.

Cursed Book - Sac D3 PD for a random spell that goes off automatically on a D6 chart (non-boosted): Mystifying Miasma, Enfeebling, Withering, Soulblight, Doom and Darkness, Curse of the Midnight Wind. Decent.

Book of Arkhan - Cheaper and has a Bound 3 Vanhels. Does not burn out. Great.

Rod of Flaming Death - Bound 3 Fire Cage from the Fire Lore essentially. Decent.
 

Krell Mordain

Zombie
Jan 2, 2010
43
Master of the Black Arts - Expensive. but works i used this today

Curse of the Revenant - not worth it

Red Fury - still love this one

Flying Horror - not a fan but ok

Quick Blood - thank you awesome

Aura of Dark Majesty - i don;t realy use

Dark Acolyte - +D3 useful used it today

Forbidden Lore -i wish it was still loremaster but still good to use once in a while to shake things up

Supernatural Horror - ehh not a fan never was

Fear Incarnate - i was not thinking about said combo above but now i'm loving it.

Beguile - not my thing however its good

Master Strike - crap

Dreadknight - not sure what they thought when designing this one crap

Summon Creatures of the Night - ehh not my thing


1) Skabscrath - I like it but too expensive for me to use

2) Nightshroud - not much of a fan but i may try it on a wight king

3) Banner of the Barrows - stil will use it as well

4) Screaming Banner - I like this banner will use it on a lord in death star combo

5) Black Periapt - usless too high cost crap

6) Staff of Damnation - awesome

7) The Cursed Book - thought i'd give it a try today but was useless

8) Book of Arkhan -awesome

9) Rod of Flaming Death - interesting I may try this item but really only effective against small uints...might be a good way of removing units trying to get behind you and or redirecting/sthall units....hear is my arguement why on big units its not really great. hi. I'm a choas warrior in a unit of 20+ so you kiled one of use in a usless attempt to cage us. wow, you got right where you want us.
 

Belladamma Voltaire

Vyrkos Primogen
True Blood
Aug 15, 2007
2,829
Manchester, UK
Curse of the Revenant and Scabscrath are both begging to go on a Ghoulking on Terrorgheist in my opinion. The idea of this monster with inherent awesome sauce build in with 2 screams and an insane amount of attacks is basically a support destroyer. Combine this with Aura of Dark Majesty and you have an expensive but ridiculously destructive flying threat.
 

Kaptain Von

Vampire Count
True Blood
Feb 26, 2008
1,189
United Kingdom
Dreadknight is the 'most infantry hit me on 5s' power. Having to challenge is a bit of a pest but you can run Krell alongside the character with Dreadknight - his 'must challenge' trumps the Dreadknight one (it's written in the rule text for Dreadknight).

The Banner of the Barrows has copped a nerf though. The previous 'hits on threes' trumped hit modifiers, this one doesn't. Not that I've got any reason to complain since mine might as well have said 'misses on twos' instead... and it's not like the new book is starved of rerolls or anything.
 

Count Darvaleth

I <3 marmite
True Blood
Apr 26, 2010
3,407
Voltaire said:
Curse of the Revenant and Scabscrath are both begging to go on a Ghoulking in my opinion. The idea of this monster with inherent awesome sauce build in with 2 screams and an insane amount of attacks is basically a support destroyer. Combine this with Aura of Dark Majesty and you have an expensive but ridiculously destructive flying threat.

I do love the idea of basically ruining my opponents cavalry and monsters with this combo. Especially as the Death Shriek specifies that you roll 2D6 and compare with the target unit's leadership, rather than a nearby general's leadership.
 

Belladamma Voltaire

Vyrkos Primogen
True Blood
Aug 15, 2007
2,829
Manchester, UK
I did also mean to add that he would be mounted on a 'Gheist (Teror, not Var). My brain devolved in to a minestrone at the thought of this unit screaming my friends trusty rat ogres to death. I imagine the little ratty packmasters running away while the big ones heads just pop.

Another nice thing I noticed was that it is possible to create a lovely buff bubble by putting a Necromancer with the Staff of Damnation on a Corpse Cart - make sure he gets Vanhels or Hellish Vigour and add the Carts bubble of ASF and suddenly you have your own better version of the Chaos Warshrine, dispensing buffs like smarties.
 

forgottenlor

Ghoul
Jun 23, 2008
134
Vienna
I do love the idea of basically ruining my opponents cavalry and monsters with this combo. Especially as the Death Shriek specifies that you roll 2D6 and compare with the target unit's leadership, rather than a nearby general's leadership.


Normally it says "unmodified leadership" if you can't use the general's. I would assume in this case that you could use the general's leadership.
 

Dklyn

Crypt Horror
Dec 21, 2009
550
Bravo_10 said:
5) Black Periapt - Very potent, but also very expensive. I liked it much better when it allowed only a single power or dispel die to be manipulated, albeit at a 40-point cost decrease. It appears to be a substitute for the free MotBA dice we used to get, so if you were a fan of that power, feel free to take it. Personally, I find it a tad to expensive to use in game, as there are other ways to ensure magical superiority.


8) Book of Arkhan - Not much to say here. It's cheaper than it was before, and it's only Power Level 3, so it'll give you a nice one-dice casting of VHD 50% of the time. If you liked taking it before, keep using it, but I think I'll stay away from it for the time being.

book of arkhan should work 67% of the time with 1 die if bound lvl 3 right?

I'm really not a fan of the new black periapt. Not only does it nom nom 55% of item allowance, but requires 2 DD to get full effect. Back in the good ol days (2 weeks ago) I struggled to save one DD against many opponents, putting 2 DD away is a high cost in of itself IMO. Plus I know if those DD were important than I would roll 12 for WoM, making saving those DD a waste :(.

HERO said:
Summon Creatures of the Night - Cheap, can increase Dire Wolves, Bat Swarms and Fell Bats past their staring size. No one will ever take this because of the price of Fell Bats.

I figure you mean the $ cost not point cost of fel bats, since I think fel bats are quite a bargain point wise. Good thing I got mine way back when :D.
 

Yorga

Vampire Count
True Blood
Apr 7, 2011
1,844
Duke Danse Macabre said:
The Black Periapt is a bit over priced for what it does.....
All things considered now spamming is gone it may prove to be useful but I don't see it being worth its points by any stretch.
Its handy.... Not game changing.

I agree it over priced. I don't see it ever being in my army as it can only be taken by a lord character and there is too much other stuff that 55 points can buy. Wish they had made it 50 points so a hero could take it.:rolleyes:
 

Dreadgrass

Necromancer
Dec 20, 2009
846
forgottenlor said:
Normally it says "unmodified leadership" if you can't use the general's. I would assume in this case that you could use the general's leadership.

I was going to disagree with you on the groundsthat it's not actually a LD 'test'. However, upon re-reading Inspiring Presence, it merely states that: "all friendly units within 12" use (note, not MAY use, interesting point) his Leadership instead of their own.

So yes, I believe the generals LD is used for the shriek until FAQ'd otherwise. On a 2nd note though, it does not seem to be optional to use the generals LD, so if you Doom and Darkness the general, your essentially de-buffing everything within 12" LD... Sorry if this is obvious to everyone else, but my local gaming group hasn't been playing this way, might have to squeeze D&D imto a list...
 

drmooreflava

Grave Guard
Jan 14, 2012
212
Here's a fun combo for a lahmian BSB

Screaming banner + BSB vampire with aura of dark majesty and fear incarnate. Fit him out with some mundane armor, what evs. Your lord with dread knight will be accepting challenges today anyway. This bsb with a fighty lord will knock the pants off anything if you have you rerolls from magic and manage to get ASF from corpse cart. I am in love with the synergy this book has:perv:
To confirm, thats a highest of 3d6 ld test that gets rerolled or rerolls from bsb negated (very helpful vs someone who manages to be steadfast vs 80+ zombies).

Death star lists are not dead, they just changed color!:mad2:
 

ZARATHOS

Zombie
Nov 24, 2011
5
[/quote]
As I can see many ideas for building a fear based army would be good but be weary of nagashs minions (TK). But the idea of scaring a temple guard is very tempting but there are rules like cold blooded which may ruin this technique. o_o
I feel the best way to play my army is using the characters such as krell and kemmler. Due to there list of magic items what do you think
 

Vipoid

Necromancer
Apr 27, 2012
873
With regard to the magic items, I think the biggest disappointment for me was that there is no blood-drinker anymore. I mean, Vampires, Vampire Lords and Ghoul Kings can all be tooled up to be excellent combat characters, but we only get one special magic weapon? Really? And it costs 3/4 of our magic-item allowance...

For me, a Blood Drinker that worked like Vlad's would be perfect. I love ways to regain wounds on my character models, it would give more potential to the +1 wound vampire power, and does give a little combat boost, in the form of +1 strength.

I imagine others will disagree, but this is exactly what I want out of a vampire weapon. Skabscrath is just too expensive, too limiting in what can take it (basically, you'd only use it on a Ghoul king), and too gimmicky.
 

Yorga

Vampire Count
True Blood
Apr 7, 2011
1,844
Every re-written army is loosing their cool stuff. Empire just took a major hit and their Runesword is over priced for what it does now. Once we're all down to 8 items each things should be balanced. But...we'll be into 9th edition by then.:tongue:
 

Melle

Sir Larpsalot, champion of larpers
True Blood
Apr 7, 2012
1,141
Sweden
Yorga said:
Every re-written army is loosing their cool stuff. Empire just took a major hit and their Runesword is over priced for what it does now. Once we're all down to 8 items each things should be balanced. But...we'll be into 9th edition by then.:tongue:

aye, and in 9th GW Will change armybooks again, to have 4 pages of magicgear once again, just to make Sure to keep things unbalanced
 

Vipoid

Necromancer
Apr 27, 2012
873
Losing virtually all the choice in unique items is quite depressing.

I mean, I can understand some trimming (when items either aren't any good or are basically available in the core items). But... 8 items, really? You couldn't even make it to 10?

To me, 8 items just doesn't seem like enough. A lot of the core ones are mediocre at best, so having some more unique weapons and armour would have really helped with making interesting lords/heroes.

I think 15 would have been a better number to aim for.

Maybe I'm alone in this, but to me, 8 items just seems pathetic and, frankly, lazy.
 

Johnny-Crass

Vampire Ancient
True Blood
Jan 25, 2012
6,633
California
8 items? So we are not counting powers now? Right:rolleyes:

Besides black perapit I find all our items to be incredibly useful and most of them to be a must take
 

Thindol

Grave Guard
Oct 16, 2010
204
Hamilton, Ontario
I think the black periapt is useful. Especially in the first couple of turns when there isn't much to res or cast since there hasn't been much combat. That said, I don't take it often due to not having enough points to get everything else in I want.
 

Yorga

Vampire Count
True Blood
Apr 7, 2011
1,844
Johnny-Crass said:
8 items? So we are not counting powers now? Right:rolleyes:

Besides black perapit I find all our items to be incredibly useful and most of them to be a must take

Correct. Not counting powers. I think we did alright on the magic items. Like you I think black perapit is TOO expensive.

Oh you play at Great Escape Games? You going to be at the SAWS Challenge next weekend?
 

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