Help me build a vampire character-killer

[waaght]

Hey guys, I am trying to build a vampire hero that I can charge at a unit, challenge whatever character is in it, and kill them in the challenge. Ideally, the vampire would be mounted on a nightmare or a hellsteed. What items and vampiric powers should I give this guy? Is this concept even feasible for a hero level vampire?

[Igmar]

Forgive me for not remembering all the names of the items/powers but what I've been running with great success is:

Vampire Lord
-Heavy Armor

-Enchanted Shield
-Talisman of Protection (4+ ward)
-Ogre Sword (+2 STR)

-Red Fury
-Vamp power that gives you +2 WS
-Vamp power that gives you always strike first

-On dragon, nightmare, or hellsteed... pick your poison. I prefer the dragon as it's just an amazing model, but that -1 for enemy's to hit is amazing at WS 9 as now everything that's WS 4 or less needs 6's to hit him, and 5's to hit the dragon. They can take on whole blocks of infantry by themselves.

This is a brutal combo as it gives you a 2+/4+ save, STR 7 and always strike first, which usually means re-rolls to hit, making your hits count, and with Red Fury, for every wound you cause you get an extra attack. I've had him kill several big-name characters and other lords before they even get to strike back.

[waaght]

Forgive me for not remembering all the names of the items/powers but what I've been running with great success is:

Vampire Lord
-Heavy Armor

-Enchanted Shield
-Talisman of Protection (4+ ward)
-Ogre Sword (+2 STR)

-Red Fury
-Vamp power that gives you +2 WS
-Vamp power that gives you always strike first

-On dragon, nightmare, or hellsteed... pick your poison. I prefer the dragon as it's just an amazing model, but that -1 for enemy's to hit is amazing at WS 9 as now everything that's WS 4 or less needs 6's to hit him, and 5's to hit the dragon. They can take on whole blocks of infantry by themselves.

This is a brutal combo as it gives you a 2+/4+ save, STR 7 and always strike first, which usually means re-rolls to hit, making your hits count, and with Red Fury, for every wound you cause you get an extra attack. I've had him kill several big-name characters and other lords before they even get to strike back.

That sounds pretty cool. I actually hadn't even considered the dragon... I'll have to try it out. My original question was in regards to a vampire hero rather than a lord. I am willing to sacrifice most of the armor/ward saves in favor of killiness, but I am still struggling with optimizing the 50pts of vampiric powers and magic items. Any thoughts on what to give a hero? Also, I notice that you took magic items that give your character extra strength rather than extra attacks. As vampires are already high strength, why did you go with that option?

[Igmar]

Oh, my bad, I guess I missed the hero part... I'm not usre what I would do at that point, maybe just scale down all the extras. I ususally run my hero vamps as magic and support characters, leave the killing to the lords.

Well, the +2 WS has less impact on the hero vamp compared to the lord, and always strike first is more of a bonus, and again more usefull on the lord, so I think you can just stick with Red Fury (the best fighter power in my opinion)... as far as gear, I've always found defense to be a priority over offense, especially on vamps since they provide so much support to the rest of your army. Red Fury and Armor of Destiny is a very solid combo, give him a shield and let him loose. Pure offense is rough cause you can't give your vamps much basic armor, heavy and shield only gets you so far... now barded on a steed helps a lot here, so if you go that route, I'd stick with +STR weapons, or the twin blades for the WS10 and +1 attack is really nice too. If you end up having the points, the +3 STR potion is AMAZING for that one turn kill something big and tough.

I always go with strength weapons over attacks cause if you want a character killer you need the strength to wound, and the extra strength cuts through their armor save as well. Wounding chaos lords on 2's and -5 to their armor save is brutal. Take the extra attacks if you plan on swathing through troops, but you'll need the STR vs other heros/lords and monsters.