Vampire Counts Tactica (unofficial)

[Thompo]

Good Evening Lords and Ladys of the Moonlight Aristocracy. This Thread is designed to be a place where anyone can share their forbidden knowledge and battlefield tactics. Anything from optimal unit size to vampire combinations, we want to hear what you have to say. I'm hoping that one day i can collect all this knowledge together and post it all in another "official" thread, but who knows.

So come one, come all, share your darkest secrets and dirtiest tricks, so that the vampiric cause can become a force to be reckoned with. Muhahaha

[Thompo]

I shall start proccedings by suggesting the following:


The Drakenhof Banner is worth it with the new tournie size
Skeletons and Ghouls both excel at different things so it is pointless to debate which is better
Unit sizes of 25 work well

[L192837465]

There doesn't need to be a tactica for VC. They are good at anything they do, which is crap. The army has no downsides, doesn't run, cares naught for psychology, can cast multiples of the same spells from the same caster (which is my biggest grief ever) and they have access to the Frostblade, arguably the best weapon in the game.

Here's a good tactica: make a good list that is still competitive with less than 5 power dice and no Drakenhoff banner.

[Vampire lord]

one thing wroung with the vampire counts is the lack of ranged and war machens models

to counter this i use dire wolfs to attack there ranged units as soon as possablie

[cypher623]

The key to the VC is characters, characters, characters! Their core choices are lame, they have no shooting to speak of and only a couple of units that can fight on their own, so take advantage of the plethora of new magic items, combined with the vampiric powers, AND the elimination of character slots to put characters in those weak units.

Wanna good combo. Try this: crown of command, with fencers blades in combo with a 30 man unit of grave guard. You can run this and still leave enough for another lord as your general.

Want money in the bank? Forget about level upgrades for your lords; give them +2 casting dice and forbidden lore; sure sometimes you wont be able to use all of the dice, but you are guaranteed an additional spell each turn, and that spell should, with only some exceptions, always be the dance. Also, run one regular vampire with +2 casting dice and the bound item that gives you the dance, other than that FORGET about hero level vampires; run wights whenever possible to help with fighting and use necromancers, because they can choose the dance. You can buy a t5 wight with 3 wounds and a necormacer for less than a vampire hero with forbidden lore.

Most important of all, DANCE! DANCE! DANCE! This spell and the WAAGH spell work wonders. Cast it every time you get the chance.

Cheers!

[Chaos Minion]

Here's a unit I rarely leave home without. A unit of 3-5 wraiths. Most units have a SCR+4, so I have to kill at least 4 models to not crumble away. You can charge these guys into a ranked up squad of (input chosen unit) and usually come out on top. With 9-15 s5 attacks, 4 kills are pretty easy to accompish. Coupled with a vampire with Crown of Command, these guys can really put out the hurting. Most units will not be able to hurt them at all and at worst you've tied a unit in combat for a whole game. But that what VC's is all about, tarpit the enemy and let the Vamps do the work.

[Fueldrop]

try this on for size:
Vampire Lord
giant blade
dragonbane gem
nightshroud
the other trickster's shard
infinite hatred
red fury
beguile

place in same unit as DH banner.
end result:
4 ST 8 WS 7 attacks. reroll failed hits. good odds of reroll failed wounds. ignoring armor less than 1+, and enemy rerolls successful ward saves. for every wound you inflict, you get an extra attack. you will strike first.
Get into challenges and keep there, only coming out to kill monsters.

note: very frail without DHB's regeneration, beware killing blow. (but like flaming. instead of a 4+ save you get a 2+ save.)

if you can think of anything short of a dragon+lord (probably more than the quite modest 405 points this lord costs) that can reasonably be expected to kill this in CC, please let me know.

PS: in a recent game this lord killed 2 treemen and 2 treekin singlehanded (treekin then broke and ran off. got run down, too.) only reason she didn't kill the wood elf lord in cc is that he had regen. (would have got him next turn, but ran out of time.)

[Albavar]

if you can think of anything short of a dragon+lord (probably more than the quite modest 405 points this lord costs) that can reasonably be expected to kill this in CC, please let me know.

PS: in a recent game this lord killed 2 treemen and 2 treekin singlehanded (treekin then broke and ran off. got run down, too.) only reason she didn't kill the wood elf lord in cc is that he had regen. (would have got him next turn, but ran out of time.)

How about 5 wide 10 deep skavenslaves with 5-10 Poison Wind Globadiers just off to the side?

[alakinsky]

I am new to WFB, but I love my VC's! Here are some tactics I am using:

I play 3k points, so I use 95 ghouls as my core choice, running them 10 wide and 9.5 deep. My Wight King BSB is in here with the Royal Standard of Strigos. Next to that is a block of 40 Grave Guard, where I run Count Mannfred for now, but I am looking to change to a Vamp Lord, we'll see (I have an idea for a nice Death Star unit, see below). My Grave Guard have great weapons and the Banner of the Barrows. Behind those two small blocks I run a small unit of skellies that have 2 Vampire Heroes in it along with 2 Necromancers. The Necromancers both have Vanhel's. One has a dispel scroll and the other has the Forbidden Rod, just in case I have a crappy magic phase and need a boost to power dice.

The 2 Vamp Heroes are my favorite part. One has the Crown of Command so either the ghouls or the grave guard get his weapon skill in every close combat phase. He also has forbidden lore with which I choose beasts, mainly for Wyssan's Wildform which I cast on the ghouls. WS7 S4 T5 ghouls? Oh yeah, it's on. The other Vamp Hero has the Staff of Damnation which I found works great once the grave guard and ghouls are in combat, because the spell lets every unit (no every model) that is in combat during the magic phase make one attack apiece, with all of the effects of close combat. So, if I was able to get Vanhel's off on both the grave guard and the ghouls, they get to re-roll their missed to hit for these attacks as well.

Now, for the Death Star, which I have yet to play but looks like it'll rock some people's worlds:

Vamp Lord - Master of the Black Arts, Forbidden Lore (Beasts), Book of Arkhan, Power Scroll
Vamp Lord - Master of the Black Arts, Forbidden Lore (Vampires), Fencer's Blades, Helm of Commandment
7 Wight Kings (no upgrades)
40 Grave Guard - Banner of the Barrows

Use Savage Beast of Horros with the higher casting value to give all characters within 12" +3S and +3A. Use the Helm of Commandment to give the unit of Grave Guard (where the 7 Wight Kings are) WS 10. Lather, rinse, repeat. That's 42 WS10 S7 attacks, along with 24 WS10 S7 attacks from the Grave Guard. Now, if this unit has Vanhel's cast on it after it's in combat, WATCH OUT!

[Skragger]

If you can think of anything short of a dragon+lord (probably more than the quite modest 405 points this lord costs) that can reasonably be expected to kill this in CC, please let me know.

PS: in a recent game this lord killed 2 treemen and 2 treekin singlehanded (treekin then broke and ran off. got run down, too.) only reason she didn't kill the wood elf lord in cc is that he had regen. (would have got him next turn, but ran out of time.)

An Empire Great Cannon crew with bad, BAD, garlic breath.

Or a charging Inner Circle Knights of the White Wolf. Tears through ANYTHING they touch.

[WillyRapier]

@Alakinsky: unfortunately, your DeathStar wont work. You can only use Helm of Command when your Vampire is not engaged in combat (the FAQ is contradictory of itself in this regard) or the vampire's combat is already resolved. So while your vampire would be WS7, your GG would be their own WS.