1500 point Vampire Counts

[Asmodai]

I've decided to build a 1500 point vampire counts army and I'm looking for some comments on my list

HEROES
Vampire Hell Steed,Scabscrath,Red Fury
Vampire Scepter De Neiroit,Crimson Gem of Lahmia,Dark Acolyte,Lord of the Dead
CORE
Zombie Horde 1
20 zombies: 1 musician, 1 standard bearer
Zombie Horde 2
20 zombies: 1 musician, 1 standard bearer
Skeleton Warriors 1
10 skeletons: champion,musician,standard bearer
Skeleton Warriors 2
10 skeletons: champion,musician,standard bearer
Crypt Ghouls 1
10 crypt ghouls: crypt ghast
Crypt Ghouls 2
10 crypt ghouls: crypt ghast
Corpse Cart unholy loadstone
SPECIAL
Grave Guard
10 Grave Guard: Seneschal,musician,standard bearer
Black Knights
10 Black Knights: Barding,hell knight,musician,standard bearer

[Randroid]

This list does not look good but its hard to judge without knowing your intent.

My random thoughts on it:

- Why take Scabcrath? If you want to take a Terror causing Vamp go with the Terror power. It's cheaper and doesn't take away from your magic items. In general you will find that Terror doesn't matter that much anyway. Tons of ItP/Frenzy/MoS/high ld/reroll panic stuff running around.

- The vamp on the flying horse can't join units which makes him a tasty target for shooting/magic. Hope that isn't your general!

- The caster vamp is similar to my normal setup but I would give him some armor instead of the gem.

- Zombies don't need standards. Don't expect them to stick around especially if you put that 100vp out there. At most give them a musician to break ties. Zombies are tar pits they won't win many combats.

- Aside from the Ghouls (maybe) those min units of Skeletons/GG are worthless. They are just going to get blasted off the board by concentrated magic/shooting. Even if they do make it into combat they don't have the numbers needed to stick around or crumble and still be effective.

- I don't find that Barding is worth it on Black Knights unless you plan on putting characters with them and moving in slowly. You lose that extra movement which makes them great (and a real threat).

That's all I have right now.

[Vampire lord]

the only thing i can see you chould do is swap the black knights for dire wolfes

[Cruor Vault]

HEROES
Vampire Hell Steed,Scabscrath,Red Fury
Vampire Scepter De Neiroit,Crimson Gem of Lahmia,Dark Acolyte,Lord of the Dead

OK, Heroes look pretty mediocre, Scabscrath is cool, but at these points levels you need to have something more reliable than Terror. I recommend putting The Book of Arkhan and the Enchanted Shield on your 1st Vampire, and changing their Vampiric Powers to Avatar of Death (HW and Shield) and Dark Acolyte. The Second Vampire I would suggest the Same setup for Vampiric Powers that you already have (maybe change Lord of dead to Lord of Ghouls) and give them the 2+ Armor Save armor and the Black Periapt.

I see your plan is to do invocation Spam to raise more models, i can tell you that against most armies with only 2 casters and 5 power dice you are going to be lucky to get more than 1-2 invocations off a turn. Vampires really Need a Casting Lord to batter through the magical defenses of most armies.

I would also Highly recommend brining a Necromancer on a Corpse Cart with a Dispel Scroll and a Power Stone since you already plan on using a corpse Cart. (No upgrades on the Cart though, too expensive at 1500 to be worth it.)

CORE
Zombie Horde 1
20 zombies: 1 musician, 1 standard bearer
Zombie Horde 2
20 zombies: 1 musician, 1 standard bearer
Skeleton Warriors 1
10 skeletons: champion,musician,standard bearer
Skeleton Warriors 2
10 skeletons: champion,musician,standard bearer
Crypt Ghouls 1
10 crypt ghouls: crypt ghast
Crypt Ghouls 2
10 crypt ghouls: crypt ghast
Corpse Cart unholy loadstone

Oh good god, Zombies are truly terrible units now. I would recommend you never actually pay for them in your list, the only good Zombie is a raised Zombie! Skeletons are pretty mediocre these days too. The prevalence of high strength attacks and armor piercing weapons means that the low Stat-line of Skellies just doesn't cut it. Plus for the same cost as a Skeleton you could get another Ghoul, and thats a much better bargain. I personally love to run units of 17 Ghouls as bunkers for my characters. They might not seem tough, but against most units in the game their T4 is a huge advantage! Plus they get 2 attacks!

I would recommend scrapping all your units of Zombies and Skeletons, bringing both Ghoul units up to 17 with a champion, adding a third unit of 12 Ghouls with a champion (you put the Necromancer on Corpse Cart in this unit) and adding at least 1 unit of Dire wolves (minimum size).

SPECIAL
Grave Guard
10 Grave Guard: Seneschal,musician,standard bearer
Black Knights
10 Black Knights: Barding,hell knight,musician,standard bearer

The unit of Grave Guard you have here isn't scaring anyone, either bulk them up to 20 and give them a magic banner or take them out. I suggest taking them out.

Split the Black knights into 2 units and not giving them command. Black Knights are great in smaller size games, but around the 1500pt area they become more of a harasser/flanker unit, so the second Rank and command become pointless.

Add a unit of 3 Fell Bats! They are great for taking out/tying up Warmachine crews, something Vampires tend to have a bit of trouble with.

No Rares?

Vampire rares are AMAZING! I wholeheartedly suggest you add a Varghulf! they are fast enough to keep up with the Black Knights and because they are a Vampire as long as the Black knights and Varghulf advance together the Black Knights can march.

Overall I would suggest a list more along these lines

Vampire 200pts
Book of Arkhan
Enchanted Shield
Dark Acolyte
Avatar of Death (HW+Shield)

Vampire 195pts
Black Periapt
2+ save armor
Talisman of Lyncni
Lord of Ghouls
Dark Acolyte

Necromancer 175pts
Dispel Scroll
Power Stone
Corpse Cart
Dance Macabre

Ghouls (17) 144pts
Ghast

Ghouls (17) 144pts
Ghast

Ghouls (12) 104pts
Ghast

Dire Wolves (5) 40pts

Dire Wolves (5) 40pts

Black Knights (5) 140pts
Barding

Black Knights (5) 140pts
Barding

Varghulf 175pts

This list has 7 power dice and depending on how well you do in the opponents magic phase you might be able to get an 8th die! Plus you have 2 bound spells people hate to see in a vampire army, The Book and unholy vigor! I always like to give the Necromancer Dance Macabre so I am guaranteed a caster with it and the Bound version in the book. Dance Macabre is too important a spell to not have!