VC Human Units. Acceptable by Fluff?

[Happy Chappy]

Hi Everyone,
I was wondering, after reading the fluff in the Army book, would it be plausible to field humans as 'count-as' units for a VC army? In the army book it mentions that Vlad attacked Altdorf with undead and Human troops. Also, being a part of Stirland, or even under Vlad, Konrad or Manfred's rules, would they not have some state-troops. It specifically says Konrad used crossbowmen...to shoot cats, but crossbowmen nonetheless.

So, would these ideas be reasonable?:

Using those inbred Sylvanian peasants as count-as Ghouls? A bunch of dirty, slightly mutated, angry folks seem like they could work. Sort of like the citizens of Innsmouth in HP Lovecraft's stories.

Using State-troops (with conversions of course, maybe based on Bretonnian Men-at-arms) As skellies?

And other such additions. Of course it'd be nice to have at least SOME undead in the army, but I think a dashing of humans would add a bit of character to an army.

Especially if the vampire has the 'The Courtly' archetype/power/thingy it seems more appropriate if they actually have a court, and subjects, to use those powers of persuasion on

Anyways, let me know what you think

 

[Duke Danse Macabre]

You could pull it off and it would fit in with the fluff.
Vlad would be the better choice to have human troops, Konrad was loopy at the end and Mannfred just killed everyone and raised then, Vlad always gives the choice and honours his word.

You could always design them with the banners of the different nobles of his realm as well before he butchered him.

 

[Vorizah Vukotic]

Pretty cool Idea go for it man, the strigoi vampires before they fell also had an empire defended by human troops and supported by undead so i cant see any reason someone would object.

 

[Isfimbur]

I have used empire allies a couple of times and teamed up with my empire playing friend. We stay away from all the holy stuff thou, like priests, pope-mobile and steam tank.

 

[Santawraith]

Back in sixth we used empire state troops with the vampire's.

I currently have a sylvania army (empire) which I had designs to use along side my counts as fluff ally's. One thing to remember
No gunpowder crossbows only
Drakenhoff templars are the name of there knight's from the era of vlad. I would suggest reading the story of the old road from the white dwarf from many moons ago. it gives great Idea's and insight. The uniforms are purple and black with red piping. The old drakenhoff banner was intresting looking too.

 

[Graf Orlok]

When the VC had the Bloodlines system, the Von Carsteins were unusual among them because they had living servants (as Counts of Sylvania) fighting together with their undead minions.

Now that the Bloodlines are gone and the VC is much more Von Castein-themed, the living soldiers are gone.

I guess two sets of rules (living and undead) in one army made the list oh so much too complicated for the marketing target of GW (i.e.: 12 years olds). Same goes with the Bloodlines. Or the Marks of Chaos. Or the Marks of the Old Ones. Or.....

 

[Vladimir the bloody]

I was thinking about using empire militia in my army as if they were peasent who would go to war for the vampire count, etc, with the same atributes as zombies (maybe except that they dont cause fear...).

 

[shotgunbadger]

My army uses militiamen as ghouls, and it works very well for me. They have that lovely 'we're just gonna grab whatever and chop you up for stew' look ghouls should have in my mind, instead of the mutant cave man look they have.

 

[Irisado]

It is possible in my view, and it is not unprecedented, as others have pointed out.

I think, however, that you need to be careful not to overdo it. There could be a temptation to take too many human units, so I would suggest just adding the odd militia unit here and there to start with. Sylvania is a very poor province, so they would seem to fit the bill quite well, and if you wanted to use them as 'count as' Ghouls, they also seem rather suited to that purpose.

 

[Dark Rose]

I've always liked this idea as well.... and there are any number of valid reasons for such troops to exist, whether they serve their masters out of misplaced loyalty, fear, or even just for kicks.

I'm not up on current rules having last played seriously using the old 6th edition stuff, but making such units rare or limiting their numbers or composition seems reasonable.

Hey... even Dracula had loyal Cossack henchmen to do his evil bidding.