Warhammer/Tactics/6th Edition/Vampire Counts

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Why play Vampire Counts?

Because you are afraid of the sun or listen to too much Norwegian doom metal.

Vampire Counts are an army with many attractive qualities; your troops are reliable, your magic is excellent and your characters are nails. The army list is very versatile (in the author's opinion the most characterful of the books released for the faction). You can customise your general and the theme of your army. Want a massive horde? How bout a hard hitting cavalry army? Maybe a small elite force? As long as you don't want artillery, the Vampire Counts have you covered.

Army Special Rules

Most of these rules are the same or highly similar to every rendition of the rules from 5th to 8th (and indeed WAP 9th and other fan continuations). They are summarised here to enable easier discussion later.

The General The army must be led by a character who can is a wizard and has the highest leadership. Interestingly this person does not need to have their spells be from the Lore of Necromancy... but they probably will. If the general dies then everything Undead (everything but Ghouls, Bat Swarms, and some niche units from the back-of-the-book lists) must take a Leadership test and a model die/wound is lost for every point you fail the test by. Also bear in mind that in 6th characters never take wounds for the general dying.

Break Tests Undead cannot be broken, but do crumble by every point that they lost combat. Characters can be chosen to take some or all of these wounds. If the enemy wipes you out in the first turn of combat because of crumble they can reform as if they had destroyed a unit in combat.

Battle Standard Undead within 12" of the BSB take one less wound than they normally would due to crumble.

Immune to Psychology Everything Undead has this. Says what it does on the tin.

Charge Reactions The dead cannot react apparently except to hold to charges.

Marching Undead cannot march unless within 12" of the General at the start of the Remaining Moves step of the Movement phase. Note that waving your tape measure around in a vague circle will get you a sound slap and directions to the Warmachine tables.

Cause Fear The really big one for 6th because of how important psychology is. All undead cause fear (technically nearly everything in the army does, including the living parts of it).

Bloodlines Not a special rule per say, however all vampires must belong to one of the five Old World Bloodlines, and all vampires must belong to the same bloodline in the army. Those Bloodlines being the von Carsteins (generic statistics that all vampires are based on here), Blood Dragons (martial duellists who's Lords and Counts wear PLATE!), Necrarch (magicians extraordinaire, especially in an edition where normally vampires aren't great at magic), Lahmians (mostly female who focus on mind games that don't work and speed-based gimmicks that really really do), and Strigoi (outcast beasts who can easily be the largest unit killer vampires).

Necromancy: the Black Art

The Vampire Counts' unique Lore of Magic is the backbone of the army. Technically you don't have to take it, but you're going to want to: three spells are potentially gamewinning, and only one is actually bad. You do have access to the Lore of Death and Von Anon here has had some success with it, but your Necromancy bases need to be covered with at least two casters first.

1. Invocation of Nehek: the first spell with three different casting values and three different effects. TL;DR, here's the normal plan of attack. Level 1 or 2 wizards spam the 3+ version on two dice to restore rank bonus to damaged units, and heal characters on the last turn so you preserve Victory Points. Level 2 wizards cast the 7+ version on three dice for good odds of raising a new Zombie unit or restoring two ranks to a damaged unit. Level 3 wizards cast the 11+ version when you absolutely NEED a new Zombie unit, guaranteed, or when the Vampire in question has been lucky to survive an Incident and urgently needs their Wounds back.
2. Hand of Dust. Dogshit spell: only relevant when your caster is in combat with something you really urgently need dead, and even if it isn't dispelled, the caster still has to land a single attack and hope the target fails whatever Ward save it has (anything worth casting this to kill will probably have a Ward save). The problem here is that Vampires are already S5-7 with plenty of attacks and will probably do more damage without this spell, while Necromancers are WS3 weeds who have a 50/50 chance of just not finishing the job. If you can swap this one out for Invocation, do so. Anon has been playing Vampire Counts for as long as the army has existed, right the way through the lifespan of this book and back to it after the End Times, and only once been in a position where Hand of Dust would have been useful. And guess what - I didn't have it.
3. Hellish Vigour. A good, cheap single-target buff which will help nurse a key unit through a crucial combat. Vampire Counts games are won by committing your units across the line and then helping one of them over the edge with Necromancy spells, and this is one spell that really helps. Especially golden on Black Knights and Grave Guard, who hit hard but only have single attacks and mediocre WS.
4. Gaze of Nagash. Bog standard completely out of the ordinary nothing special magic missile. Every Lore needs one and this one is fine: a level 2 can cast it easily and it does 2d6 hits, which is all you need.
5. Vanhel's Danse Macabre. The game breaker. An extra 8" move, out of sequence, is dynamite. Raise a new Zombie unit behind a combat, charge them in with a Danse. Turn your Black Knights around after they've broken through the enemy line, propel them to where they need to be with a Danse. Leave your General hopelessly out of position and need to get them back to the action fast? You can Danse. We can Danse. At the upper end of casting value for a reason. Sometimes, only sometimes, you'll roll more than one, and unlike Tomb Kings you can chain cast this on the same unit. Zombies covering flyer-tier distances across the table are a sight to behold.
6. Curse of Years. A high casting value means bring your Power Stones or hope you get this on a Vampire Lord, because a level 2 is going to struggle to get this one off on the maximum three dice. However, once it IS off, you'll be leaving it in play for at least a turn, because it's so damn good. The Curse of Years deals wounds that ignore armour saves to every single model in a target unit on a 6+. Then, at the start of your next magic phase, on a 5+. Then, at the start of your NEXT magic phase, on a 4+. Note that you can be cheeky and let it resolve on one target, then end it and cast it on another target and get two sets of rolls in one turn (and also have the wizard cast other spells in between, which you'll probably need to do). The best thing about this spell is that it eats enemy Power dice like nobody's business: nobody wants to let the Curse tick down and so most opponents will forgo casting at least one of their own spells to get this thing shifted.

Magic Items Companion

We are trying here to highlight the key and crucial magic items in the list, I'm sure there will be several good ones not mentioned.

Ring of the Night. Don't let the Crown of the Damned fool you: Von Anon has had one too many nailbiting experiences where their Vampire Lord waddles around in full view of an entire Skaven army going wbwbwbwbwbwbwbwbwb with their bottom lip or doesn't get to cast the gamewinning spells because they're too busy raging about Firefly being cancelled or Doctor Who being a girl now. Stupidity on your most powerful piece, the lynchpin of your entire army, is too big a risk to take. Just take the 5+ Ward and be selective about what your Vampire fights.

Book of Arkhan Guarantees you access to Vanhel's Danse. Lousy casting value, will run out when you most need it, still a must-take in most armies.

Black Periapt Stores one unused magic/dispel dice per turn for next magic phase, yours or your opponents - incredible for 15 points.

Familiars. The Warrior Familiar is a crock, but the Power variant is basically a version of the Black Periapt that doesn't require you to gimp this magic phase to serve the next one, and the Spell one is always a good buy because you need the right spells on the right casters to do best with this army.

Cursed Book All enemy models within 6" get -1 to hit in combat- this can tip almost any combat in favour of your mouldier, less able warriors and their living counterparts, though coming with a hefty 50 point price tag.

Banner of the Barrows Your Wights will always hit on a 3+, really helps with rubber lance syndrome on your Black Knights or allows your Grave Guard go toe-to-toe with almost anyone without the support of a combat character. Also very, very good for fighting over defended obstacles, and trust me, you only fight one pike block over a defended obstacle before realising how much it sucks hitting on sixes.

Screaming Banner Your army relies on Fear checks. Forcing your opponent to roll an extra dice and discard the lowest is definitely an amazing combination, although at 40 points it is not a cheap option. Could have applications with Grave Guard or Black Knights, or a BSB led skeleton unit.

Bloodlines

Unlike the later editions of WFB, Glorious Sixth the King of Editions and Edition of Kings makes you pick a Bloodline for every Vampire in your army, and makes sure the choice matters even if you don't touch a single power. Bloodlines are so atomic to how your army plays that they are worth talking about up top.

• von Carstein The generic Dracula Lords are, superficially, the weakest Bloodline, having powers that are mostly situational or not as immediately impressive. However, they can summon on a "free" Bat Swarm/d3+1 Fell Bats for 65 points or d3 Direwolves for 25 bats that can come on from any table edge, enabling a very strong march blocking ability. They also offer a very nice plus 1 combat resolution which stacks with a Thrall's Battle Standard, and the ability for Undead to march within 18" instead of 12", without which Vampire armies tend to break up in the late game with some units falling out of place. Most of all, they alone can wield Vlad the Rad, Vampire Dad's von Carstein Ring, which can make them the most unkillable out of all the Vampires at the low low price of all your magic item allowance. All in all the Von Carsteins do the most to support their army and control the battlefield, even if they don't look like all that on paper.

• Blood Dragon Melee Carnage on legs (or hooves, or claws, or something equally horrifying). Full Plate Armour on a Vampire Lord frame? YES! One less casting dice (because of the armour) but unaffected Dispel Dice. WS 10 - even Chaos Lords will be struggling with that one. Must issue and accept challenges, which with their armour and WS isn't normally a problem but does lock you into fighting heroes instead of curb-stomping infantry like a Vampire should. Honour or Death can potentially get around that, but it is still a potential risk. Of special note for Thralls and Counts is the delightful Heart Piercing power: with only three attacks these models are prone to whiffing their combats and a re-roll can ensure you get your money's worth out of them.

• Lahmian In this anon's opinion, ignore the gimmicky Seduction powers and focus on the bread and butter. Always Strikes First for 25 points? A 5+ Ward Save that can't be stripped away at 30? Obnoxiously high Initiative built in, along with a Leadership malus that goes well with Banshees? She can even take a neat bow that lets her snipe out unit champions or wizards for a trifling 30 points (probably best taken on a Countess or Lady to be sure of landing the hits with their higher BS, as there is a -1 malus involved). Not your average vampires, but definitely a viable choice for a niche build that uses Wights to get the heavy hitting done.

• Necrarch You trade two points of Weapon Skill and all your weapon and armour options for +1 to cast all your spells. Nehekhara's Noble Blood is the standout power here. It allows a Lord to monopolise a Lore of Magic in combination with the Spell Familiar and Forbidden Lore power. It turns a Count into a level 3 wizard who doesn't take up a Hero slot. It turns a Thrall into a level 1 caster who can actually throw down in combat, and their +1 to cast all spells means they can reliably cast middleweight Invocations on two dice. Other powers include the excellent Master of the Black Arts (which puts an extra 6" of range on the otherwise somewhat limited Necromancy spells and turns the Lore of Death's Drain Life into a goddamn tornado) and The Awakening, which improves the efficiency of your Invocations by throwing an extra d3 into the mix on each cast.

• Strigoi Murder those units. Bonus attacks, Hatred, 5++, and absolute power house upgrades: this anon favours the "six S6 attacks" or "flying and regenerating" builds for a Count, or the "five wounds, mother bitches" approach to a Lord. Sadly cannot take any mundane upgrades or normal magic items, but with the superior abilities they can be a whirlwind of destruction. The Thralls are a bit crap as they can't carry the Battle Standard or achieve S7 attacks, but you'll probably want Necromancers and Wraiths to support these bad lads anyway. By far the deadliest vampire, with the most kit built in, and if you're not going for magical dominance they're probably the winner's choice.

Units Analysis

Named Characters

Mannfred von Carstein - and look, if you're here from Total War or End Times or, god forbid, Age of Sigmar you're already queuing up the memes and I'm not here for it, all right? This is Mannfred like he used to be, as God and Jervis Johnson intended: suave, sexy, still has hair. He's a brooding Gothic overlord who hasn't decided to teabag the entire world and wonder why he got his balls ripped off.

He's also a bloody good spellcaster: a level 4 wizard who casts one spell without needing to throw dice at it, generates more dice for himself as he kills things (and with a Vampire Lord statline, albeit with -1 WS/BS, that's good for one or two extras per turn in the midgame), packs a 3+ ward save with no drawbacks and has some of the best whole-army support powers his Bloodline can offer. Takes up three character slots, costs as much as three characters, but absolutely does three characters' worth of work.

As a bonus, he's not a Vampire Lord, so in a 3000+ point game you can absolutely bring him and a regular Lord on a Zombie Dragon and just let them go to town, safe in the knowledge that they won't break the army when they inevitably get shot off the back.

You're going to want a unit of Dire Wolves or Black Knights to hide him in though, because he has to ride a horse and he'll often be standing still in the early game to get Call Winds going, which makes him an obvious target.

Zacharias the Everliving

On the one hand, he's a powerhouse spellcaster: free Dispel Scroll every turn, level 4 wizard with all the Necromancy spells automatically, all the rest of it.

On the other hand, he costs just over 1000 points, eats all your character slots in a 2000 point game, and he's on a Zombie Dragon. The Zombie Dragon is a flying deathtrap for a Vampire Lord: it makes them into a Large Target, it attracts every cannonball, flying rock, oversized crossbow bolt and entire Skaven army around, and it virtually guarantees that you'll either spend half the game trying to hide it and wasting its potential or you'll take a risk and lose your (extremely expensive) General the moment you try and do something.

Lords & Heroes

• Vampire Lord 0-1: Hands down one of the scariest characters in the game, making even a heavily armoured Chaos Lord pause for thought. Weighing in at 285 points and paying 50 points for a (mandatory!) extra wizard level, this fellow is not cheap. A level 3 spellcaster with an extra point of WS/BS/W/I/A over a standard Count, they will cost you an extra hero slot. In games of 3k+ they are very worth running, but can be difficult to include in a smaller game with the competition for hero slots in this army.

• Vampire Count: Probably the most widely used Lord choice for VC in 2k games- this entry has superb combat stats with the option for a great weapon or lance for Von Carsteins and Blood Dragons, elevating them to S7, the magic number for smacking chariots around. In an army that otherwise struggles to deal with well protected threats, this guy will be the lynchpin of your army and it is well worth spending the points on magical items to amplify his impact on the game. A Ward save is a must. In larger games, a Count makes a great choice of secondary Lord: slap them on a Winged Nightmare and let them go to town.

• Master Necromancer: Let's get one thing straight: if you take one of these instead of a Vampire Lord you're in the wrong army book. That said: they're a modestly priced level 4 wizard and make great partners for Vampire Counts in 3000 point games, since they can wantonly throw five dice at spells and not worry as much about miscasting. Give them a Power Familiar and they're totally self sufficient.

• Vampire Thrall: A great damage amplifier to any unit s/he joins with combat stats that would make an Elector Count blush. Unable to use a magic (unless a Necrarch) this is a pure combat character and will preform well alongside both infantry and cavalry. VC/BD bloodlines have access to GW's which will boost their already impression St5 to high enough to instant kill chariots. Also a potential BSB, although perhaps best avoided on the bloodlines that cannot take the heavy armour that said BSB will need (namely, a consideration for von Carsteins and Blood Dragons, less so for the others (and impossible for Strigoi). Von Carsteins have a notorious power build which swings a great weapon, charges 18" with Wolf Form, and sports a 1+ armour save with the Flayed Hauberk: it's absolutely brutal and will go through skirmishers, war engines, chariots and other nuisances like butter. The Asp Bow is an interesting consideration for Lahmians as well - their BS gives them 50/50 odds of sniping a unit champion or wizard over a turn or three, and the lower stats and weapon options for them makes a character not on the front line more reasonable.

• Wight Lord: 20 points cheaper than a Thrall and significantly less fighty than a Thrall. If points are tight or you want to make a characterful hero-slayer they are worth considering - Gem of Blood and Sword of Kings may be combined to make a decent (if expensive) character hunter. A very good consideration for BSB if taking Bloodline that does not let their heroes wear armour, and a potentially good source of Killing Blow in a unit with the Banner of the Barrows. VON ANON ADDS: one thing people overlook here is the Leadership value of 9, compared to the Thrall's 7. If you want your unit to stick around after your General dies, and if you want to restrain from pursuing defeated enemies so you can hold position and control the field, Wight Lords are very very good at doing that.

• Wraith: An interesting and characterful slot, which is both ethereal and causes terror and can even be mounted to join a unit of cavalry- but already competing for hero slots with killier Thralls and more useful Necromancers these are rare to see on the tabletop. There is a build which makes use of the Cursed Book mounted on a horse and flank charging/combo charging with a unit like Grave Guard, which can cause a lot of potential problems for fighty characters to deal with. Don't overlook that they cause terror, which can really help put Ogre heroes and Maneaters in their place, and they can make for an excellent speedbump - within 12" of the Battle Standard they can hold up a line of Knights for a turn or two while you bring in a proper unit to support them. All in all, a niche pick with a lot of potential.

• Necromancer: The question is not 'should I take a Necromancer' but 'can I justify using my Hero slots on anything else?' Access to a fantastic lore of magic and a catalogue of strong magical items plus generating dice for your Lord means you're bound to take at least one. Aside from Gaze of Nagash none of your spells require line of sight so these grubby minions of the night are often found picnicking in lonely forests, cowering in buildings, or surrounded by a summoned bunker of zombies.

Core Units

• Skeletons: Since before recorded history began, Vampire Counts players have debated the relative merits of Skeletons vs. Zombies and the answer in this author's opinion is simple (SKELETONS!)- do you want to build a tarpit or a medium combat threat? Skeletons have similar stats to Goblins, except for the incredibly impactful 'Fear' special rule. If you want to build a pure tarpit, zombies are for you, but skeletons with light armour and shields come in at 10 points a model and can soak up a reasonable amount of punishment while also being able to be raised from the dead. Led by a Vampire Count/Lord a good sized unit of these have been known to win combats against ironbreakers led by dwarf lords in this author's experience. You only ever need to win a combat by one as long as you run enough of these guys. 25 strong with light armour/shields/full command will cost you 275 points, but is well worth it. Also of note that the Lore of Necromancy allows skeletons to be raised beyond their initial starting value. Which does make their use even great, even if starting with a smaller unit.

• Zombies: Coming in at 6 points a model and always striking last with no save- these are your tarpit. While they may never win combats (without supporting cavalry/monstrous intervention) these guys will always fight to the last due to being undead. Many players operate blocks of 10-15 in their starting list to fill core slots with a view to raising more models into the unit to use as a spell caster bunker or a tarpit. When casting invocation of nehek they are THE CORRECT choice of new unit to raise: you're more likely to get a new unit as you get +1 model per die, and they give away fewer Victory Points when they're inevitably flattened one round later. Using Vanhels to get these newly raised guys into position in an opponent's rear or flank is a very valid and game winning tactic.

• Ghouls: 8 points a model for a fear causing skirmisher with 2 poisoned attacks at T4 who is also alive and thus can flee from charges? With a min unit size of 5?? These are just amazing, don't leave home without 10 or 20. Great for wizard hunting, dealing with archers or war machines who will struggle to deal with them and for supporting large combats- point for point one of the best units in the game. A valid build is that of the ghouls rush - as many 10 model units as you can cram in, usually led by a Strigoi Lord. It is a fast and flexible way to get around most opponent's preconceived notions of Vampire Counts.

• Dire Wolves: 10 points a model and with M9 and S4 on the charge these are a good unit for attacking archers and war machines, with the fast cavalry rule helping their mobility and can intervene in combats at a pinch to deny rank bonuses. However with T3 and no save they cannot stand up to punishment and cannot (usually) be raised with Invocation of Nehek. If you wanted to ensure that you have no friends, you can run a bus of 20 of these led by a vampire lord and 3 thralls with wolf form (giving them M9) and just hurtle around the table at light speed killing everything.

• Bat Swarm 0-1: Strictly worse than spirit hosts and in an army that doesn't have to worry about min core slots. Meh. Which can be useful a long bomb charge against artillery or lone wizards. Definitely not a first choice, but one that has applications if used right.

Special Units

• Grave Guard: An excellant and characterful unit - heavy infantry with S/T4, access to a 3+ save in combat or halberds along with the killing blow special rule. These are pretty nifty and will be difficult for your opponent to shift, they will however be outperformed by the game's true elite infantry due to their low WS- this can be mitigated by the Banner of the Barrows, though who to give this gem of an item to is worth pondering over.

• Black Knights: One of the stars of the list and one of the nastiest cavalry units going. S/T4 and with lances, these can pack a punch on the charge, especially when augmented with Banner of Barrows and/or Hellish Vigour. Larger units of these can simply plow through who armies, especially if led by a combat character- all for only 23 points per model or 25 with barding. Does struggle even more than normal cavalry with being easily led away, as the no marching can easily be used against them and they often pursue out of your General's reach. There's a reason the tournament armies of yesteryear usually had three units, though.

• Fell Bats: Coming in at 20 points per model and with a min unit size of 3, these are a go to choice for killing war machines or lone wizards, but will struggle against even dwarf crewed war machines. Well worth including for the low points cost, but competing with other important units in the special slots.

• Sprit Hosts 0-1: Bloody good thing they're 0-1! Armies without magical shooting/missiles and in a game where many lords pick a GW over expensive magic weapons, these are one of the most frustrating tarpits around. However you must give high priority to using your magical defences to stop them being lit up by damage spells as only T3 W4 each and coming in at a hefty 65 points per base.

Rare Units

• Banshee: the Screaming Lady of Supreme Irritation. Ethereal is the only defence that this lady has, but that said it is a very good defence in an edition low on magic weapons actually being used. Average statistics in every other way (human average at that), with only two wounds, this lady is not really a fighter, and is easily crumbled if she is caught on her own to pure static combat res (rough maths means that if she is charged by a unit with a rank and a banner, she will die even if she does her average 1 wound). (VON ANON observes that the Banshee is a walking case for the VC Battle Standard Bearer, as suddenly she's not dead and has now held up an enemy unit so you can counter-charge. Best speedbump!) What makes this lady special is the Ghostly Howl - one of the very few shooting phase abilities that VC have. The attack is not a Leadership test, do not let your opponents pull fast ones here - it's an attack which happens to involve the Leadership stat. Roll d26+2, subtract the target's Leadership, anything left over is a wound that ignores armour saves. By itself it's a novelty, but if you're running with Lahmians and/or a Lore of Death caster, you're suddenly knocking down the target's Leadership by three or four points. Don't throw it away on chaff, go after expensive cavalry or elite infantry where every wound counts. Remember also that you can scream into combat, even if the Banshee isn't involved in the fight herself - if SHE is fighting, she has to scream at her own opponents, but she can hang around behind your lines and wail away. Interesting, surprisingly cheap, requires close reading of the rules in a manner that can offend the learned opponent, but not something to build your entire battleplan around.

• Black Coach: 0-1. An...interesting choice. In larger games with cannons and other S7 attacks, not the most amazing choice. In smaller games, i.e. under 2000 points when you only have one Rare slot and won't have a proper Vampire to be your fighting centrepiece AND there won't be as many threats around... it's worth a punt. 5++ keeps it moderately safe, as does the T6. Terror is also both defensive and useful for breaking smaller units. Evocation of Death is kind of meh this edition - essentially +1 wound (even going above starting value) for each wound caused. If it gets to 10 wounds it counts as a Scythed Chariot (Impact Hits d6+1) but only so long as the chariot has 10 or more wounds. It's an interesting unit, and thematic for von Carsteins and Lahmians, but ultimately kind of meh. Especially for its very high point cost, in an army where characters run expensive and you'll want to fill your slots.

Army List Variants: the Back of the Book

Each Bloodline has its own wild and wacky theme force tucked away in a two page spread at the back of the book. All move units around between slots and adjust the numbers you're allowed to take, and three of them invite in units from other lists.

Note that this section can be used only with the permission of your opponent, and even the book says they are in no way as balanced as the main list (one in particular just rips open the concepts of 'game balance' and 'good sense' and 'verisimilitude' and 'god I didn't want to think about that', be warned).

• Von Carstein: Lose Master Necromancers and Ghouls, gain 0-2 Bat Swarms, 0-2 Black Coaches, Fell Bats in Core and Sylvanian Levy, aka Empire Free Company, Archers, Crossbowmen and 0-1 Huntsmen. A perennially popular theme force, with a lot of flexibility: Huntsmen are great march blockers and diverters, Crossbowmen add a good solid punch from a distance, Free Company aren't as mobile or tough as Ghouls but can bait, switch and throw down two attacks in melee well enough. Really benefits from a Battle Standard Bearer with all those living units around, and the best way to avoid rules headaches around Undead characters in living units is to not have them join and bring a Skellie bunker just to be sure.

• Necrarch: Lose Master Necromancers and Ghouls, Dire Wolves move into Special, all Heroes can ride Winged Nightmares and unridden Zombie Dragons appear in Rare. Hot damn, it's a Vampire flying circus, and a perfect opportunity to use those Zombie Dragon models we should very much avoid otherwise. Lots of Terror, lots of mobility, lots of eggs in one basket probably.

• Lahmians: Lose Master Necromancers, Ghouls and Zombies, gain Swains: Heroes from ANY OTHER WARHAMMER ARMIES BOOK, with all their usual options, including mounts, who gain Hatred of the enemy if the Lahmian General, the immortal object of their desire, turns out to be less immortal than planned. Clearly meant to be used with restraint and dignity, to bring in a Bretonnian or Empire hero, maybe an Elf if you wanted to get daring, a Dark Elf Sorceress if you wanted to summon the artfags. Clearly GOING to be used to snuggle-smuggle Skaven Warlock Engineers, Skink Priests on Stegadons, Beastmasters on Manticores and Exalted Champions of Chaos on big gnarly Daemon mounts (actually, those last two veer back around into sexy again, forget I said anything, carry on). Whatever you end up indulging in, the Swains had better be able to survive and contribute to the game on their own as there are all sorts of rules loopholes around putting them safely in any of your units and life's too short.

• Blood Dragons: Easier to list what you can take than what you can't, to be honest. Blood Dragon Vampires of any size. Wight Lords. Black Knights (must have barding), Grave Guard and Skeletons with hand weapons and bows at 10 points each as Core. Regular Skeletons as Special. Black Coach, Banshees, and Dogs of War... unless you want to go off the deep end and let your Black Knights use Lance Formation, and since this list is clearly derived from Bretonnia rather than the Empire I say go hog wild. Accept that you'll only be attempting one spell per turn; take those Black Knight lances with a Thrall in the front of each one; fill up on Skeleton Archers and bring a Banshee or two to deflect. Deal with enemy wizards by spitting them upon your lances. Game on.

• Strigoi: Only Vampire characters. Core is Ghouls, 0-1 super-Ghouls with WS 4, S4 and Ld7 at 10 points each, 0-1 Bat Swarms, 0-1 Strigany (another set of Empire Free Company, this time as Warhammer gypsies because GW finally reached the 'uncritical racist tropes' level of White Wolf's garbage bags). Special is Skeletons, Dire Wolves, Fell Bats and 0-1 Spirit Host. Rare? Banshees and Dogs of War, no Black Coach for you! Another army where you won't be casting many spells, but in your defence you won't need to as the majority of your army isn't even Undead. Skeletons are there as a bunker option in case your vampires need to hide from shooting for a few turns, everything else is full feral. It's an interesting idea for a list, that'll be asking a lot of the Strigoi Thralls. You might as well go full Lore of Death with this one and not even bother with raising conventional Undead. This anon is a coward and would never play it, but you absolutely do you if you're coming in from a later edition and own the twelve kajillion Ghouls you'll need to fill a 2000 point army.

• Necromancer's Army: Lose all Vampires, Ghouls, Bat Swarms and the Black Coach. Dire Wolves move into Special. Everything not a Necromancer gets a points break. Essentially, you're giving up on the combat potential and cool factor of the Vampire in favour of an absolute barrage of spells and combined arms play to compensate for your lack of really strong heroes.

Army of Sylvania (Storm of Chaos list)

And lo, in the Age of the Rings Franchise Deal there shall be a decline in sales, and metaplot shall become the fashion among the nerds, and skub shall be the whole of the lore. And in that time of darkness, man shall become beard, and beard shall become man. - Excerpt from Warhammer: Storm of Chaos (2004), probably

The Army of Sylvania represents a bizarre extension of the Von Carstein theme force from the regular army book, this time into an army designed to fight on Mannfred's home turf and a final attempt to make a Necromancer-free variant of the faction actually work on the tabletop. In subsequent editions, the Vampires would just be made into proper Wizards, but here, the developer responsible decided to... experiment. It worked rather well, if you happen to like the Von Carsteins and think they were a bit overshadowed by the other Bloodlines, with only Lahmians seeing less table time. It is, however... a tiny bit unbalanced. Just a little.

The army gets two Grave Markers for turning up, plus one for each Vampire Count or Vampire Lord in the list. After choosing table edges, but before setting up, place these markers on the board (up to half on your opponent's side, but none in your opponent's deployment zone) and scatter them 2d6". They can't go off the board.

In each Army of Sylvania magic phase, each Grave Marker casts From Death Awakened: power level 4 Bound Spell with a range of 6" that summons 2d6 Sylvanian Militia, 2d6+2 Sylvanian Levy, or 2 extra wounds for a multi-wound model. New units may have any weapons and armour allowed by their list entry. This will be important later.

There are a clutch of new Bloodline powers, which are all good. Spectral Attendants (35 points, -1 casting penalty to all enemy wizards, one per army), Wolf Lord (10 points, Vampire may use Invocation of Nehek to raise d3/2d3/3d3 Dire Wolves), Earthbind (10 points, Vampire has Magic Resistance 1). There is a new magic item, the Drakenhof Banner, which is very good: 50 points and the unit gets Magic Resistance 2, while any Summon Bats or Summon Wolves power within 12" generates double the number of creatures.

So far, so good. You can see how it works: the Grave Markers are easy to dispel but they keep the units topped up if they fight nearby; Dire Wolves play a more significant role; the new powers introduce a defence against aggressive enemy magic to compensate for losing Dispel dice from the lack of Necromancers.

Then we get into the list itself.

Lords: Von Carstein Vampire Lords (PLURAL) and Vampire Counts.

Heroes: 1+ Von Carstein Vampire Thrall (may be the army general), Wight Lords, Wraiths

Core: Dire Wolves (one unit may have Scouts, for +1 point per model), 0-2 Bat Swarms, Fell Bats (do not fill minimum Core slots), Sylvanian Militia and Sylvanian Levy.

Special: 0-1 Spirit Hosts, Grave Guard (0-1 unit may have full plate and greatswords for 15 points per model), 0-2 Black Coaches.

Rare: 0-1 Black Knights (must have barding), Banshees.

You will have observed the S6 Grave Guard, the multiple Black Coaches in SPECIAL, the MULTIPLE Vampire Lords in the 3000+ games GW was trying to encourage at the time. Now we reach the endgame. Let's look at those new unit types.

Sylvanian Levy are Zombies with light armour, shields, and either spears or halberds at 8 points per model. Sylvanian Militia are Skeletons with light armour, shields, and either a spear and shield, halberd and shield, or a FUCKING CROSSBOW. 10 points a head.

The Army of Sylvania springs Skeleton Crossbowmen out of the ground whenever it can: sure, they're inaccurate, but it's hard to hide from them when they can just be raised anywhere, and it's not like any points were wasted on them. Opponents are march-blocked and triple-charged by Dire Wolf units from all directions, slammed into by double Coach charges, and meanwhile a huge block of Black Knights with Magic Resistance 2 and three Vampires in the front rank just grinds around the table chewing through anything it can charge.

It's not invincible: in particular, it can do very little about magic that doesn't target its own units, it doesn't have the capacity for Dispel Scrolls as the Vampire Lords have better things to spend their points on, and any opponent who can stack bonuses to Dispel rolls can shut the Grave Markers down just by putting a die on them. It also sucks horribly between 500 and 2000 points, where two Grave Markers are increasingly likely to be shut down until the Vampire Lord or Count arrives to take the strain. But it doesn't rely on Vanhel's to be fast or Invocation to get new Dire Wolf units into play, and a lot of the usual tricks like the Cursed Book/Book of Arkhan power couple, the Wraith librarian and the Wolf Thrall are still very much available if you walk back from the monobuild a little.

While it lends itself to lovely post-mortem Empire conversions and can be played as a fairly straight infantry army, the potential for the Sylvanian Nightmare is always there. And all the Storm of Chaos lists were like this. The End Times were upon us. We were all living in the Shadow of Ward.

And forgive me, reader, I enjoyed every minute of it.

Tactics

Know your Weaknesses and know your Strengths

Vampire Counts broadly have two major strategies that most lists will rely on to be effective. Those tactics will be relying on fear and outnumbering an opponent to cause an automatic break test, and using magic combined with a high damage unit/character to roll units. More specifically, the VC can be used in approximately 6 different ways, depending on Vampire Boodline or taking only Necromancers (although Necrarchs will be similar to Necromancer only led armies).

Synergies

Just some overview on stuff that works well together. In the end you have to built your own lists and adapt them to the challenges ahead so knowing synergies is helpful.