# Where to go with Vampire Counts



## Hivemind Demeter (Nov 6, 2007)

So I'm one days trip to the gamestore into the army.
(What a lie, it was a $300 dive into the army.)

My friends and I play 40k, but we have one friend who refuses to play 40k and swears by fantasy. He has about 4k of High Elves, and to appease him, my best friend and I are moving into Fantasy for a bit as well.

My friend already had some 1500 points or so of Wood Elves, but is selling them off to go for roughly 3000 points of Chaos Daemons when he's done.

Another friend of mine has some Beasts of Chaos army, so I went with what's been appealing to me for quite a while, and their new. :3

I'm slightly over 1000 points right now, but since I'm new to not only the army but Fantasy as a whole, I don't know the typical tactics and types of Vampire Counts armies. I love the magic phase with Vampires, with the summoning of undead and what not. I also love the idea of lots of vampires, while I know that won't happen.

I'm shooting for anywhere between 2000-3000 pts of Vampire Counts when I'm done.

What I've bought:
Aristocratic Vampire (Female)
Necromancer (On foot and on mount)
Empire General (He's my vampire on a mount, and he struck me as similar to a vampire character I have in a story of mine. He's painted up very well and looks like he belongs in this army.)
10 Graveguard
3 Black Knights (all the store had at the moment)
5 Blood Knights (These buggers are EXPENSIVE)
1 Batallion
-Corpse Cart
-10 Ghouls
-20 Skeletons
-20 Zombies

What should I get from here?
What should I get more of?
What should I not have bought/never buy anymore?

etc.etc.etc.


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## Shadwell (Apr 29, 2008)

If you are going for 4k of points you totally need a Zombie Dragon.

Core:
Go for Wolves, Skele's and/or ghouls. I wouldn't field any zombies but have them only for summoning.

Special:
Grave Guard.

Can't remember what else off the top of my head, perhaps Wraiths, unless they are Rare, the only one that stands out in the Special area are Grave Guard.

Rare:
Blood Knights, totally use Wolves or a Varghulf to help block in their frenzy
Varghulf, big, strong and has a regen save.
Wraiths, ethereal and quite strong.

Lord:
Manfred on foot. - Unless you are using Hero Manfred
Vampires.
Wight King. - Good with right equipment if you can spare the points.
Konrad is also pretty good if you put him in with some Skeletons or Grave Guard, awesome character killer if you don't roll Stupidity

Character:
Vlad - Lvl 3 wizard and not too bad at attacking, the ring also adds some awesomeness to him.
Manfred on horse - essential if you want high magic, lvl 4 wizard.


That's without going into any tactics etc. 

Corpse Cart and Black Coach can be decent if used correctly.

Just my opinions, others may not agree, but really, best thing would be to get the codex, have a read of it and decide yourself.


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## Hivemind Demeter (Nov 6, 2007)

I have the codex and have kinda decided what I like myself, but what I was looking for was the typical types of armies, or what's the most popular builds and why.
MVP of the army, etc etc.

Would it really be that bad to use a vampire that isn't Mannfred/Konrad/Vlad etc?
I don't think I'll be fielding any of them, as I like kitting out my own hero and lord for my army.

Also, you can get a level four wizard out of a normal Vampire Lord. +1 level with the 50 points, and then the 30 points from the vampire powers. Since Mannfred doesn't use all his 100 points in vampire powers, you aren't missing much.


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## Shadwell (Apr 29, 2008)

As far as i know you can only get level 3 vampires, might have to read over it again when i get the chance, but no, you don't need to, it's nice for fluff though, even though they are all dead in the fluff. >_>

MVP from my experience is the lord on the dragon zombie, give him red fury, dreadlance, and the heavy armour, lance and shield updrade and he'll eat things up quickly, especially on the charge and has fly. Also use the lord on top to heal the dragon with magic if need be.

Wolves for speed is nice, also, as mentioned, good for "funneling" the frenzied blood knights, if you plan on using them.

For core the best would be for just killing stuff, ghouls, although Skeletons will always have the advantage over them in combat resolution and they can have a magic banner. 

Summoning large numbers of zombies near/in front of stronger units to hold them up is a popular tactic where i usually play as well.


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## Hivemind Demeter (Nov 6, 2007)

Mmmm.
Yeah, you can give your Vampire a power that gives him another Wizard level, and you also have a blatant bonus in his stats to give him another Wizard level. Although, one is 20 points more than the other.

I am using Bloodknights, and I find that a vampire lord made up on your own is just as effective or more so than the special characters.

Riding a zombie dragon eh?
Does the Zacharias model come off the dragon he rides?
In which case, I'd buy it. :3


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## Shadwell (Apr 29, 2008)

The only thing i can't see your own vampires doing is having the potential to cause 12 wounds in one attack phase as Konrad can.  But other than that, a custom one can be made just as, if not more, powerful as the characters.

Yes, the Zacharias model comes off, when you buy it you assemble them both seperatly and have the choice to glue Zachy on. I personally did and am going to use him as the lord, purely because my modeling skills leave alot to be desired.


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## Hivemind Demeter (Nov 6, 2007)

Indeed, those 12 attacks are Konrads and Konrads alone. (12 wounds, not attacks)
However, my lord isnt subject to stupidity. (Unless on the commanders behalf. )

I'm tempted to buy a model that already rides a dragon with a lance or a sword and just paint it darkly, as I did with my Empire General. (Now my Vamp Lord. :3)


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## DarknessDawns (Oct 21, 2007)

id go mannfred though
hes near as good as vlad in combat but he has potentially up to 13 or so power dice himself, and he knows all spells from 2 lores 
AWSOME


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## torealis (Dec 27, 2006)

a) more batallions. i run a 2 cart list, and it works very well. i use a black coach for my rare, because ive got 17 PD...

b) the empire wizard kit, combined with bitz and spares, make awesome necros.


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## Hivemind Demeter (Nov 6, 2007)

Ive already got a necromancer and it came with mounted and unmounted, so I don't think I'll be needing any more than that.
I do absolutely LOVE my Empire General as my Vampire Lord. Just utterly sexy, I'll try to get some pics up soon, eh?

I picked up a box of Dire Wolves and a Varghulf today as well, putting my points total over 2000! Woo.

I'm looking at finishing my Black Knights, getting a High Elf Dragon Rider (The one with teh dragon leaping from the rocks) as my dragon riding vampire, some Cairn Wraiths (And a tomb banshee) and another batallion and calling it quits.

I figure that puts me at 4k or so, sounding pretty nice to me.
so anyone want to share any tips and tricks with me on the Vampire Counts behalf?


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## Shadowfane (Oct 17, 2007)

I find that blocks of skeletons tend to form a good solid core, beefed up with the mandatory grave guard - don't be afraid to start the units of skellies smaller than you'd prefer, as with the lord of the dead vampire powers you can increase them over their starting size. Add the banner that doubles unit strength to the grave guard for some surprise viciousness.
Dire wolves and a Varghulf tend to work well together, as the Ghulfs Vampire rule means the wolves can march, and the wolves get a beast of a unit moving with them to deter skirmishers/light cav from going after them.
I have to admit I generally don't use special characters, as I prefer to design my own powers/items combinations. I generally build each vampire for a purpose - combat vampires don't generally get magic-related powers, and vice-versa.
Never, ever have zombies in your starting army - they're far more useful as new raised units for march blockers, charge redirecters and the like.
I personally don't like using Blood Knights all that much - they're hideously expensive, and I prefer the varghulf anyway. Black Knights, on the other hand, are fantastic, with their ability to move as if ethereal.
Finally, I know that the dark art has some very unpleasant aggressive spells in it, but think of them as more of a bonus - if you get a chance to cast them, chances are that you've already done the raising/replenishing/moving you wanted to do anyway!
Anyway, hope this somewhat random collection of thoughts has proved useful.


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## Danger1887 (Jun 11, 2008)

Blood knights are totally not worth it. Far too expensive unless your playing a 4k points battle or more.


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