# Dagmire needs help with VC (new player)



## Dagmire (Oct 9, 2008)

Well I have decided to take the plunge and have a go at being a square baser……
It was only ever going to be one army, Vampire counts. Being a Goth and a huge Countess Bathory fan I feel quite at home with the un-dead, and what nerd can say he doesn’t love Zombies???
SO as I have no idea I about Fantasy I have decided to come here and ask for advice/tips on my idea for a list.
As I said I love the “Bathory” lore so I guess I will want a blood thirsty count of my own. The idea of a coven of female Vampires surrounded by zombies, skellys and knights is a strong contender. I guess there will need to be a necromancer or two in there too.
I am interested in running with a few large units of zombies and skeletons that have been raised from the dead to supplement the Countess and her court of followers.
I am interested in running a few knights and that huge war machine with the vampires on looks outstanding.
Anyone able to give me any hints and tips on how best this type of army might work out and what units work well together….

……I know little about the game and the units VC have.

D


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## KarnalBloodfist (Jan 30, 2010)

You can't go much wrong w/ a couple large blocks of skeletons and zombies. Use them to tarpit the enemy and use your knights to hammer them in the sides. Even a block of grave guard will be handy as a combat block.

Don't forget to get some support stuff in there in the way of spirit hosts/dire wolves/bat swarms/fell bats. They are cheap drops and let you set up the battles that you want.

Something to consider would be to get a battalion box or 2 for the VC. Tack on 2 boxes (minimum) of zombies and some characters and you have yourself a decent starting force!

Back around the end of 6th/start of 7th editions I wanted to do an all female characters VC army as well. I even converted a damsel from the Brett line to be one of my necros!


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## Dagmire (Oct 9, 2008)

hummmm, thanks for the advice. Not sure i like the idea of ghouls and the wolves though


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## KarnalBloodfist (Jan 30, 2010)

Well, then you cold just go w/ 3 or 40 boxes of skeletons, probably about 3 boxes of zombies (you're going to need the extras for raising beyond the starting size or starting new units), 2 or 3 boxes of grave guard, maybe a box or 2 of black knights, and a few characters. That may get you to about 1500pts ... give or take. And for characters, if you want all female, I highly suggest the Avatars of War vampire! :good:

I wouldn't be so quick to shrug off the wolves. You will need some type of chaff units and the wolves fill that role really well. Not to mention the spirit hosts. I suppose you could use hex wraiths but they are pretty pricy points wise to be used as a chaff unit.


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## Dagmire (Oct 9, 2008)

what about bats instead of wolves?


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## KarnalBloodfist (Jan 30, 2010)

Bats could work well. Fell bats can fly so can move a bit further. Bat swarms confer _Always Strike Last_ to enemy units in base contact w/ them so they could be useful as support to a block of infantry.

EDIT: Bats will die easily as swarms are only T2 and fell bats are T3. Both have multiple wounds but you can't rely on that. Also, both bat selections take points in the special slots where you have your grave guard, black knights, and the new monstrous infantry units.


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## Dagmire (Oct 9, 2008)

Yeah that might be good. I fancy a "Bram Stokers DRACULAR" style army. So powerful Vampires controling the elements.
As i have yet to grab the rule book or codex any chance you could mock up a quick army list??? 
I will rep you...


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## KarnalBloodfist (Jan 30, 2010)

How many points are you looking at?


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## Dagmire (Oct 9, 2008)

1500 at first, i thing thats the normal points level? Then increasing to 2k


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## KarnalBloodfist (Jan 30, 2010)

1500 is a good start. You can get a good amount of troops in there plus a bit of the heavy hitters. To keep in line w/ your fluff, maybe start out w/ something like this:

Lvl 2 Vampire w/ Talisman of of Endurance, Enchanted Shiled, Gold Sigil Sword, Dark Acolyte, Summon Creatures of the Night - 225
Lvl 2 Necromancer w/ Dispel Scroll, Master of the Dead - 145
40 Skeletons w/ Full Command, Screaming Banner - 255
40 Zombies w/ Standard Bearer, Musician - 130
30 Grave Guard w/ Full Command, Great Weapons, Banner of Eternal Flame - 400
5 Fell Bats - 80
2 x 1 Spirit Host - 90
Varghulf - 175

That comes to 1500 on the button. I didn't make the necromancer a master necro because I figured you wanted a vamp to lead the army. Both core blocks and the bats can be raised beyond their starting size (though it'll be hard for the bats as they more than likely are going to be operating outside the max range for _Invocation_). Support units in the way of fell bats to fly out after stuff and the spirit hosts will have to be hit w/ spells/magic weapons to be dealt with. The Varghulf gives a little punch as a support unit. You could swap the banners around on the skeletons and grave guard if you wanted. To start, that's 4 boxes of skeletons, 2 boxes of zombies, and 3 boxes of grave guard. And that's only if you don't want to take the core units beyond starting size. Otherwise you're looking at probably getting an additional 2 boxes of bot skeletons and zombies.

When you go up to 2K, you could make the vamp a lord and add some more toys to her and then also add some other stuff like a Mortis Engine and possibly a BSB (all depends on how you kit out the vamp).

Let me know if you have any questions or if you want to try to fit something else in.


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## Aramoro (Oct 7, 2009)

Dagmire said:


> Yeah that might be good. I fancy a "Bram Stokers DRACULAR" style army. So powerful Vampires controling the elements.
> As i have yet to grab the rule book or codex any chance you could mock up a quick army list???
> I will rep you...


Lucky for you Bram Stokers Dracula is basically the Von Carstiens Family, who are the main focus of the book, Isabella Von Carstein IS Countess Bathory. 

I'm not a huge fan of Fell bats but I do love Bat Swarms so bats are definitely on the cards. 1500 points is a tough points value to play at for Vampire Counts as it make sit hard to take a good Vampire Lord so you're usually relegated to Master Necromancer or Vampire to lead your army. I don't want to start an argument over list building in this thread though so I won't comment here. I think if I was going for a Bathroy theme it would be something like this

Vampire Lord
- Level 2 Wizard
- Aura of Dark Majesty
- Beguile
- Fear Incarnate
- Talisman of Preservation
- Heavy Armour
- Enchanted Shield

Nice little Fear based Lord, -1 Leadership rerolling successes on Fear tests which combines with the Screaming Banner. 3+/4++ saves. 

Necromancer
- Level 2 
- Dispel Scroll

Bit of an Auto include

40 Skeleton Warriors
- FC

A nice big block for you to try and hold up enemy units with.

48 Zombies 

Filling you your core with a Zombie Horde

2x Bat Swarm Bases 

They give Always strikes last to your opponent in combat, really good if you get them into the flank of your foe. 

25 Grave Guard
- Great Weapons
- FC 
- Screaming Banner

Nice Stabby unit, S6 attacks is not something you can complain about. The Screaming Banner will make your opponent roll 3 dice for Fear tests and discard the lowest, with your Lord that's at -1LD and rerolling successes. 

Black Coach

Nice and Thematic for a Bram Stoker style list a hellish coach. 

That all comes to 1500pts on the button. It needs some tinkering and a lot of stuff is up to personal preference of course.


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## KarnalBloodfist (Jan 30, 2010)

That's a nice fluffy list Aramoro! I don't really know the fluff behind the books so I'm sure you're a bit more on fluff wise than I am. That and you probably play more than me and have a better idea of what the army needs. I haven't played VC since end of 6th beginning of 7th and I have yet to play against the new VC.

I thought about using the bat swarms because of the ASL. The 2 bases have just as many wounds and attacks as 5 fell bats. The main reasons I went for the fells: faster and high T (not that the difference b/w T2 and T3 is going to make that much of a difference ).


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## Aramoro (Oct 7, 2009)

My list is more fluffy than good I think, the Varghiest and Spirit Hosts are better than the Black Coach I think but not as fluffcentric. The Blood Lines are basically

Von Carstein - Transylvania Vampires with Bats, Wolves etc
Strigoi - Monstrous deformed Vampires with Vagheists, Terrorghiests and Varghulfs
Lamhian - All female Egyptian Vampires with Coven Thrones and magical vampires
Necrarch- Thin frailer vampires (modelled on Nosferatu) heavily into Magic Power with Mortis Engines
Blood Dragons - Heavily armour non magic using Martial Honour based vampires with Blood Knights

Von Carstein's are you classical Vampires as such.


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## KarnalBloodfist (Jan 30, 2010)

I sort of remember the whole bloodline thing from the old book (that was what, 2 books ago???). Yeah, the whole von Carstein line is basically based off the Dracula myth. I actually had planned on making a Lamhian army back when GW had the bloodline based armies in the back of the book. I even have the Neferata model and I converted a Brett damsel for a hero lvl vamp or to use as a female necro. But GW went the way of concentrating on the von Carstein line w/ the last 2 books. Oh well.

You have pretty close to what I had in a list. I had thought about trying to squeeze in the Mortis Engine (to keep the female fluff going) but, like you said, 1500pts is a tight squeeze. Especially when there are so many cool new toys!!


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## Tim/Steve (Jan 25, 2009)

Not sure how good fear based tests are going to be: so many armies out there are eith ItP or cause fear themselves that you'll often get no bonus for all those upgrades...


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## Dagmire (Oct 9, 2008)

Guys, thanks alot. you have helped me massivly.
XXXXX


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## Aramoro (Oct 7, 2009)

Tim/Steve said:


> Not sure how good fear based tests are going to be: so many armies out there are eith ItP or cause fear themselves that you'll often get no bonus for all those upgrades...


It's not great but it's ok, if you can squeeze the points then throw a Tomb Banshee into the unit on the corner to reduce hits back and to allow you to cause Fear in a Fear causing units. The Tomb Banshee also gels well with the Aura of Dark Majesty. 

Then you put 4 Tomb Banshee's in your Skeleton unit so you front rank is 4 Tomb Banshees and the Champion, your Vamp sitting in the second Rank scaring people. Your Champion will get catastrospazzed but that's ok you can rez him next turn. Then you get 4 Screams at -3 LD wooo


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