Eldargals first Vampire Counts list ever.

[eldargal]

So the theme of my Vampire Counts army is going to be based around a coven of largely city based Lahmians, which limits the forces they have access to. No SCs, no zombies ('cos of the smell and lots of fresh corpses lying around is a bit lacking in subtlety), limited ghouls, no feral vampirey-whatsits like Varghulfs/gheists, strigoi, abyssal terrors and whatnot.

So mostly skellingtons and ethereals.

Basic List:

Vampire
Heavy Armour, Aura of Dark Majesty, Beguile, Biting Blade

Necromancer
Master of the Dead

25 Skeletons
Command, Screaming Banner

25 skeletons
Command

Corpse Cart
Unholy Lodestone

10 Black Knights
Command, Lances, Barding

989 points.

The general idea being the characters sit in the skellington units, keeping them close together with the corpse cart behind to buff and both being in range of the other characters Invocation of Nehek. The Black Knights are the hammer unit. Little worried about the size of the skeleton units, even with their size being added to/healed.

So another option:

Vampire
Heavy Armour, Aura of Dark Majesty, Beguile, Biting Blade

Necromancer
Master of the Dead

35 Skeletons
Command, Screaming Banner

35 skeletons
Command

Corpse Cart
Unholy Lodestone

5 Hexwraiths
Hellwraith

The skellington bunkers are bigger, but the hexwraiths are possibly not as reliable a hammer as the black knights. In both lists the enemy have to take a LD test -4 or re-roll successful hits against her and take fear tests at LD-1 against the usual Fear tests, which isn't bad. I think. She also does 4 S5 attacks that ignore armour which seems respectable. There is also the possibility of the corpse cart giving ASF and unholy lodestone helps maximise the number of undead revived.

No Coven Throne yet as I want to figure out howto play the army before upping the size to 1750-2000pts.

Opinions, bearing mind this is for friendly play not tournaments.

[Bitrider]

I like the hexwraiths. Adds a tactical challenge, fun rule set and does beef up your skeleton crew you were concerned about.

G

[celestialatc]

I have not gotten the new book yet but no Grave Guard? Are you going to keep them out of your forces or thinking on getting a unit? They were THE unit in the last book. Or is it because they are wights?

[Alex Knight]

I'll have to wait until the book shows up at the FLGS today to make any solid comments. That said, at first glance I like the first list better. You said it yourself, the Hexwraiths aren't as solid a hammer as the Black Knights. The other question is what are/will be your usual opponents?

Okay. After looking at things - going to try to see how well the Hexwraiths and Black Knights can be made swappable. If it works out an option is: Do a box as Black Knight command and a box as swappable Hexwraiths and Black Knight standard. You'll want the extra 20 skeletons eventually anyways.
Otherwise, the other thought is if the gaming group doesn't have a problem with it (and you don't either, I know people that won't touch an unpainted army to play with...) build the caparisoned horses and leave them in the back ranks for the 10 Black Knights or as the Hexwraiths.

[eldargal]

I'm fine with wights, they are just skellingtons afterall. But no I've not included Grave Guard in these lists simply because I wanted to try out one of the new cavalry units. I did toy with having a 21 strong unint of GG to put the Vampire in as the hard hitting unit, I'll probably make another list to that effect soon.

I have not gotten the new book yet but no Grave Guard? Are you going to keep them out of your forces or thinking on getting a unit? They were THE unit in the last book. Or is it because they are wights?

Well having them swappable isn't a big issue for me, twenty pounds a kit isn't so much that I need to economise.

I'll have to wait until the book shows up at the FLGS today to make any solid comments. That said, at first glance I like the first list better. You said it yourself, the Hexwraiths aren't as solid a hammer as the Black Knights. The other question is what are/will be your usual opponents?

Okay. After looking at things - going to try to see how well the Hexwraiths and Black Knights can be made swappable. If it works out an option is: Do a box as Black Knight command and a box as swappable Hexwraiths and Black Knight standard. You'll want the extra 20 skeletons eventually anyways.
Otherwise, the other thought is if the gaming group doesn't have a problem with it (and you don't either, I know people that won't touch an unpainted army to play with...) build the caparisoned horses and leave them in the back ranks for the 10 Black Knights or as the Hexwraiths.

[eldargal]

Another list:

Vampire
Heavy Armour, Aura of Dark Majesty, Beguile, Biting Blade

Necromancer
Master of the Dead

40 Skeletons
Command, Screaming Banner

20 Grave Guard
Command, GWs, War Banner.

Corpse Cart
Unholy Lodestone

5 Hexwraiths
Hellwraith

1234 points

So the GG and Vampire are the hammer unit, hopefully with ASF from corpse cart. They head to the enemy cores to munch them up while the skellingtons try and tarpit enemy nasties. The hexwraihs try and take care of screening units and big monsters and such like. GG have war banner to mitigate crumbling if they lose combat, another option would be the banner which gives them armour piercing. I can afford the extra ten points that would be.

[gcsmith]

looks nice. cant tell much since i dnt know about the book

lol.

[wittdooley]

So which troops choice seems to be the best?

[eldargal]

I think they are all quite balanced actually. Zombies are going to be a nasty tarpit, skellingtons can do a bit of damage and absorb some (and are cheap), ghouls hit harder but are more expensive so they aren't miles ahead of the rest. Dire Wolved I've not really looked at.

[gcsmith]

would love to give u a game sometime eldargal, shame u probs dnt live in scotland