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Originally Posted by farmergiles65  Good tactica and one we need, though I might just voice three opinions.
(1) Don't underestimate the black coach. I use it in every game and most of the time it comes up trumps. With the constant sucking of power dice it quickly gets to that uber stage of been ethereal at which point its just plain nasty. My last battle had it own a unit of chaos warriors. Yes STR 7 hurts it, but its got a good ward save should they arise and if they are likely to cause issues, simply avoid them or concentrate your initial damage on that unit. If its warmachines you got fell bats and cairn wraiths for that.
(2) I like the two last spells in the vampire list. Wind of Undeath particularly as if the opponent has a lot of units which most of the time they do, then thats a lot of rolls and potentially 2-3 spirit hosts. That spell just got you 130-195 points of ethereal units whilst dealing damage to the enemy. And dealing wounds to lone characters and rare choices (chaos spawns and dragon ogre in last game) is always nice when its tough to do it normally. Summon Undead Horde, granted the zombie part isn't brilliant but at least with 4 dice its generally reliable to get the spell off than hoping for a 5+, then lots of 4+'s. I like it most for the 3D6 wounds spread around part. Perfect for healing characters, knights, grave guard etc to a decent level and then just topping up your other units.
(3) I find dire wolves to be ...........well plain dire!  Fast movement is all well and all but they can't win a battle against anything other than a petty war machine crew and even then they can easily mess it up. Other flanking units from the enemy will mince these alive not giving you much chance to get into a decent position for march blocking, etc. I personally find ethereal units to fulfill this better, failing that use fell bats which at least can fly. |
Thanks for your comment but I disagree with what you say and here's why.
1) It's the sucking up power dice that makes it unattractive as those power dice are better served supporting the army rather than having a small chance in making 1 unit slightly better and by the time it gets to its super stage it will be late game and be less effective than the other rares that are effective from the start. I just feel the other rares are a better choice and I see it as a novelty choice.
2) These spells have their uses but compared to the other spells we have I don't see them being cast much purely because the other spells are that much more useful. That and only a lord can realistically attempt to cast them who will likely be the general so using 4 dice has a high chance of miscast so casting the spells is an unnecessary risk to take and the rewards are not really worth it. I only see them being worth it in larger games of 3000pts or up.
3) The point of them is they're a cheap core and are supposed to die, don't expect them to kill anything. The better choices are special so are contesting for slots this is why the wolves are good you can add them without sacrificing a slot in your army. Plus even if you don't use them in the game they can be deployed first so you reveal nothing about your army and just hold them back to hold a table quarters as then your paying 40pts to get 100VP or deny your opponent 100VP so either way a good deal.
I understand your opinions may differ from mine but this was written from my experiences which are probably different to yours.