# Vampire Counts Tactics



## Thanatos

Ive had my vamps for a while now but havnt really played yet.. been working on some converting (my vamp lord mounted on a dire wolf)
wanted to know if anyone had some great ideas/tactics they could share with me :good:


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## Captain Galus

Just cast IoN over, and over, and over, and over, and over...you get the idea. Pretty much every one of your magic phases you should be casting IoN to get as many troops on the table as you possibly can!


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## neilbatte

I don't no so much about tactics as it depends a lot on the army build you choose but I like the sound of a Vampire on Direwolf. It sounds like my mates army his vampires are all undead goblins including his blood knight wolfriders and his Zombie horde are all dead gobbo's. His tactics are the Zombie horde shuffle that swamps my line in a massed unstoppable horde useing his Zombies as squishy sledgehammers. but although effective its seriously unsubtle.


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## Vorag of Strigos

My tactics are simple, I seperate my spellcasters into three groups, Essential, Secondary and Supportive Necromancers come under Supportive especially if equipped with all three necromancy spells, IoN should be cast from all your necromancers at least once a turn each, to regenerate your losses, secondary spellcasters include Lesser Vampires, but also come under Supportive, as they can easily cast IoN or SuH Each turn, to replenish your losses much more effectively, especially when they are equipped with forbidden lore, allowing them to use all 6 spells from any lore in the game, (I take Vampires, or Death Lores) however, Essential spellcasters, such as Vampire lords or Vampire Heroes with 2 magic levels, are there for creating Barriers of Zombie meat, SuH has the potential to raise 36 Zombies PER turn! seperate those into two units of 18 and you have a sheild capable of potentially Absorbing 18 wounds before it drops, use IoN to replenish this sheild, (a secondary priority, beyond your beefier units such as skeletons, grave guard, black knights and so forth), I also took Mannfred into my army, to serve as what I describe as the God of Magics within the Vampire counts, 4 magic levels, 5 wounds and enough spells to take down a small army on his own. he alone can raise a potential 36 Zombies easily per turn without exhausting his own power dice.

other than a zombie sheild I suggest you flank important units such as Blood Kinghts, the All powerful Varghulf, and Zombie dragons, Black coaches and your general with zombies, Dire wolves for Blood knights. but remember, you don't really get a shooting phase, as almost nothing can shoot, (except banshees, which is rendered useless if the enemy has a unit with a character with LD7+ Not at all fun.)


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## Gharof von Carstein

i always use the pincer and hammer and anvil tactic. my ghoul blocks with my vampires in them to protect them march from the center with corpse carts inbetween (or in a unit with a necromancer) my pincer or hammer units are units of 6-8 strong black knights and 1 or 2 varghulfs. dont use wraiths anymore unless when playing small games like 1k or under. the zombie meatshield works but i dont like it. zombies are there to shield my units and redirect my opponent. i raise them in small groups that can maybe withstand a slaughter for one turn yet are tilted slightly to make sure that when the opponent overruns he will do so away from my units showing me his rear in the process  this is easily done. unless you have several small units of dire wolves handy to screen blood knights dont ever take them over black knights. they are far superior. drop a wightking in there for challenges with the black axe of krell and watch the slaughter.


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## Vorag of Strigos

Lol I love the black axe of krell, thanks tomy Vampire (using helm of commandment, wight king had WS7) used it to cause 7 wounds on an ogre tyrant (all three wounds hit, multiplied into 2, 2 and 3 wounds funny as!) I never regret placing a secondary wight king into my My army, tougher than lesser vampires and equipped with Sword of Kings and Black axe of krell they can deal HUGE amounts of damage or killing blow on a 5+


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## Thanatos

thanks guys... no i really mean THANKS. i have been thinking for some time now to have a huge calvary army :victory: before the latest codex came out i was gonna have an insane necromancer army and zombie spam... thougt about it a bit and realised zombies cost lotza mulah for the amount i wanted (i dont have a job... still in high school) 

hey umm... with my vamp im converting i decided to go all the way and make a special character.... how much is to strong for a 500 pt tank vampire? ive written down a few stats

M 6 WS 7 BS 4 S 8 T 5 W 3 I 7 A 6 LD 10


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## Thanatos

oh and plus a few custom items.. weapons + armour etc

Special Rules- Sibling Rivalry [( i could explain my character but its... well i just cant be bothered)-gives 'Always Strikes First' rule

Powers 
Red Fury, Infinite Hatred, Beguile

Equipment (Weapons,Armour n stuff)
Von Draken Armour- Heavy Armour, 4+ Ward, 2+ Armour Save
Kiiluin Flail- Flaming Attacks, +2 to hit, +2 to strength (already included in stats)
Plus some other stuff... Barded Mount (Dire Wolf Convertion lol), Hand Weapon (already included in stats)

Havnt worked out mount stats yet... thinking giving a special rule which gives it the abilities of any unit it joins ( just so units will still be ethereal etc)


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## Wolf_Lord_Skoll

You'll get much better feedback if you post over in the homebrew rules section mate. You can even have a browse through and see what everyone else has come up with for inspiation!


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## Stuntiesrule

i barely ever use SuH anymore unless I am really running low on everything else, I start with 10 man units of Skeles and then use my vampires/necros casting IoN to beef them up before and during combat works well gives you more units to spread the board with.


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## Wolf_Lord_Skoll

I thought you couldn't go above skeleton starting size without Lord of Death?


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## Thanatos

Thanks Wolf Lord but i think i'll keep it here because i was originally looking for tactics and strategies. By the way thanks everyone for your great feedback :biggrin: Anything that would work great with black knights and ghouls would be great if someone could help me out in that area


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## Doombull

Thanatos if you give your vampire summon ghouls and summon creatures of the night he can use Ion to increase them over starting size, then maybe avatar of death so he can survive longer.

If he is a vampire lord then i would use summon ghouls, summon creatures of the night, lord of the dead and maybe dark acolyte

I am a Vc rookie so sorry if this is bad advice


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