Who needs magic anyways.....2250pt

[Time of Madness]

The idea here was to create a hard as nails vamp army without relying on heavy magic. I wanted a fast list capable of getting into combat by turn 2.

CHARACTERS

Vampire Lord (general)
- Zombie Dragon
- Level 3
- Biting Blade
- Flayed Hauberk
- Wristbands of Black Gold
- Infinite Hatred
- Red Fury
= 665pts

Vampire (bsb)
- Drakenoff banner
- Walking Death
- Dread knight
= 300pts

Vampire
- Dread Knight
- Walking Death
- Helm of Commandment
- Sword of Might
= 195pts

CORE

20 Zombies
= 80pts

20 Zombies
= 80pts

20 Zombies
= 80pts

5 Wolves
= 30pts

5 Wolves
= 30pts

SPECIAL

8 Black Knights
***Bsb and other vamp here***
- Full Command
- Banner of Strigos
- barding
= 299pts

3 Fell bats
= 60pts

3 Fell bats
= 60pts

RARE

1 Vargulf
= 175pts

1 Vargulf
= 175pts

TOTAL POINTS = 2249pts

The general plan is to use my knights and zombie dragon as hammer units supported by the wolves/vargulfs. The fell bats will act in a supporting role as well taking out war machines and harrassing small units. The zombies are really there for table quarters and giving me some ranked infantry late game. I don't expect the zombies to do much of anything.

I really like my black knight unit with all the additional combat res from the 2 vamps and of course the banner

Opinions?
Time of Madness

 

[N.I.B]

Biting Blade? Why gimp your Red Fury volountarily?

 

[Zaggo]

You’re right to point out that your zombie’s will achieve little, if anything at all. (I was recently trying to work out the prospects of a large zombie unit winning a combat in a game I have coming up in the next month, lets just say: they aren’t too good!) I feel then that a large and arguably central portion of your army is condemned to not ‘do much of anything’ from the outset, which may be worrying.

Two lots of the three fell bats is perfect and your two Vargulfs will look imposing enough (despite my reservations about them posted elsewhere).

Given this, your black knight unit seems (to me at least) to be something of a linchpin. With that in mind, it seems to suffer from two set backs.

Firstly (and this is something I fell foul of recently) you say that your BSB will go with this unit. That denies them their ‘etheral movement’ ability, which you will pay for but not be able to benefit from. This ethereal movement is fantastic as they can literally ‘jump out’ on troops in a way in which cavalry should never be able to do (living cavalry at least ).

Secondly, the unit (imo) seems a little small. Personally I would try and move the character elsewhere (although I appreciate this may be difficult in this list) and flesh the unit out (not literally of course) with an additional two cavalry men. Making the unit ten strong. This will given them much more sticking power in combat, as they will benefit from the second rank and can claim ‘outnumbering’ in many more situations, esp. if used as flankers. Indeed, the unit is more versatile now not only fore filling the role of a flanking unit, but packing much more of a combat punch in its own right.

(As I’m writing; I’m wondering if the screaming banner (5 points dearer) might be better. This banner seems to be made for cavalry units, who can realistically chase down its foes. Obviously this will work better against enemies with lower LD, might be nasty though .)

Such a unit could do very well in your army here as you have two vargulfs, who are apt at aiding such units with both their ‘vampire’ and ‘terror’ special rules (the former is particularly important).

NB. As something of an after thought: it may be quite good to equip one (ore more) of the vampires with ‘summon creatures of the night’, as you have two units of wolves and bats apiece; the trick in this situation however is to keep the caster within range of the target units! (Maybe by giving him a horse – although this feels like going round in circles ).

Have fun…

 

[abhorash_chile]

Why 2 vampires with walking death on the same unit? the CR bonus don't stack
And why biting blade? balefire spike will works better IMO, or sword of might.

 

[Zaggo]

Biting Blade? Why gimp your Red Fury volountarily?

Why would the biting blade 'gimp' the red fury ability, it's not a great weapon?

 

[Viking]

Biting Blade? Why gimp your Red Fury volountarily?

Why would the biting blade 'gimp' the red fury ability, it's not a great weapon?

Because for 5 more points you could take Balefire Spike and get +2 STR on the charge (-2 to armor save for the 1st round), much more likely to wound and pass armor saves. You want to do a lot of damage on the charge and hopefully wipe the unit out in one go.

Or for 10 more points get a permanent +1 Str (-1 Armor Save) in the SoM. They're just better choices over all for helping roll to wound. Biting blade is a nice magic weapon for 5 points, but on a Red Fury Dragon mounted lord you want the most bang for your buck.

 

[Zaggo]

I see - I misunderstood - thanks

Biting Blade? Why gimp your Red Fury volountarily?

Why would the biting blade 'gimp' the red fury ability, it's not a great weapon?

Because for 5 more points you could take Balefire Spike and get +2 STR on the charge (-2 to armor save for the 1st round), much more likely to wound and pass armor saves. You want to do a lot of damage on the charge and hopefully wipe the unit out in one go.

Or for 10 more points get a permanent +1 Str (-1 Armor Save) in the SoM. They're just better choices over all for helping roll to wound. Biting blade is a nice magic weapon for 5 points, but on a Red Fury Dragon mounted lord you want the most bang for your buck.