Thursday, February 9, 2012

The Vampire General - 8th edition Vampire Counts Book

I'm currently reading the new vampire counts book, and so far I like what I see. There is a lot of variety in potential army builds, which was my main gripe with the previous edition. We've lost some things, and gained others, but overall it seems pretty balanced. It's too early to start seeing the new hotness in vampire counts lists, well have to wait for a few tournaments to pass by for that, but I'm kind of hoping  nothing definitive emerges. There is so much choice in the new book I can see multiple competitive builds emerging. The knights list, zombie/engine list, Strigoi list and the somewhat cheeky ethereal list are all pretty nascent but all seem playable, though the ethereal list would get a nasty shock against daemons or magic heavy armies. It's still early days, so I'll post a more in-depth list and review once I've digested the new book better.

For myself, I'm still pretty overwhelmed to have decided on a definitive list. I play less than I'd like, so I haven't been able to test much of my ideas as yet. At the moment I am thinking of multiple zombie block of 50, though I am going to run a skeleton block of 50 even though most folks seem to have consigned skeletons back to the grave already. Dammit, I like skeletons! An engine seems a good choice, as well as a unit of 5 hexwraith and 10 black knights. I'm still a big fan of the vargulf, and dire wolves might sneak back into the list. I am quite taken with the terrorgheist, but the thing I'm most looking forward to is trying a block of 8-12 crypt horrors. They seem extremely durable, and with proper support they could be a nightmare. I'm not a huge fan of the models, but I have quite a few monstrous undead creatures from zombie trolls to skeleton ogres, and they'll do nicely.

As to characters, too early to say. A master Necro seems the way to go, with a combat vampire, but I need to massage the points more. I'm considering a ghoul king too...

It will be a while before I return to the vampires as I'm still in the throes of the fimir project, but soon enough the dead will walk again...

6 comments:

  1. very disappointing to hear that skeletons are still not viable. I thought with 8th ed. focus supposedly being 'more infantry' that maybe a skeleton army would be possible (without having no chance to win a battle) but it sounds like it isn't. Such a shame- I love the idea of a skeleton army, and might make a VC army if it could be done without relying on toys, big monsters or ghouls instead of skeletons.

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  2. I'm still not convinced personally that skeletons are not competitive, I'm going to give them a good old try. I think sword and shield for the 5+ armour save and 6+ parry might help, and with a mortis engine (or two) they will have regen as well. They can take a magic standard also. 250 points for a block of 50 skellies before adding command isn't that much. In 2400 points, two blocks of these would be intimidating, plus a block of 100 zombies in the centre. All that for 800 (ish, depending on command) points, for 200 infantry. Stick two engines behind them, flank with spirit hosts, garnish with characters, special and rare to taste, et voila. The big zombie block would need to take 16 casualties a turn, every turn to be destroyed, and that's before adding any to it during the game, and even then, it's only 300 points.

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  3. Skeletons forever! I love the look of a big old block of skeletons on the field. Who cares if they aren't the best?!

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  4. Not I, I can tell you. Aesthetic over practicality forever!

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  5. you might find the podcast off "Garagehammer" fun to listen too. They spend over an hour discussing the new book and the relevancy of the units. A good listen as I was painting more troops!!!
    cheers, Bard

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  6. Cheers Bard, I'm actually quite a fan of Garagehammer, I love listening to the boys ramble on.

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