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First VC List attempt - 3000 pts

<3000 
819 views 6 replies 3 participants last post by  experiment 626 
#1 ·
Hey all,

I haven't played a game of fantasy since 4th/5th ed back in the day, but I've recently got back into it with 8th ed and my discovery of mantic's Undead range (with a few reaper minis for characters). Anyhow, I'd really appreciate any feedback/ideas on the list.

LORDS

Vampire Lord
Lvl 3(4), Lore of Vampires
Crown of the Damned,
Helm of Commandment,
Flayed Hauberk,
Forbidden Lore,
Dark Acolyte
Biting Blade

HEROS

Vampire
Master of the Black Arts,
Cadaverous Cuirass,
Book of Arkhan

Necromancer
+2 spells,
Black Periapt

Necromancer
+2 spells,
Sceptre de Noirot

Wight King
BSB,
Drakenhoff Banner

Wight King
Sword of Kings

CORE

40 Ghouls
ghast

40 skeletons
Full Command,
Banner of Hellfire

60 zombies

2 Corpse Carts
unholy loadstones

SPECIAL

40 Grave Guard
Full Command
Banner of the Barrows

RARE

Varghulf


Tactics: The Lord goes with the skeletons in the back, using the helm to up WS of other units. The front two hordes will be the grave guard with the fighty wight king and a necromancer, and the ghoul unit with the BSB giving them regen and another necromancer, plus the other vampire. The zombies will just be used in a 5x12 tarpit/wall formation to protect a flank. The carts and the Varghulf should provide some mobility and assist where necessary. Based on all the magic upgrades (Black Periapt, Master of the black arts, 4 wizards, etc...) I should have enough dice each round even before I have to roll for winds of magic to do alright in the magic phase, and keep my numbers up while the two deathstars do their work. Ideally, all the units will stay together in a heavy-hitting, self-regenerating box on one side of the board.

Thanks in advance for any advice/suggestions/comments.
 
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#2 ·
LORDS

Vampire Lord
Lvl 3(4), Lore of Vampires
Crown of the Damned,
Helm of Commandment,
Flayed Hauberk,
Forbidden Lore,
Dark Acolyte
Biting Blade
+++ not bad, however i'd consider the following;
- take lore of light over our VC lore... light has much better buffs, plus a couple harasment spells and a magic missile. the problem with our vamps lore is that it's just too weak. the spells we really want, such as vanhel's can be more readily gotten through necros, while spells like curse of years & gaze of nagash don't take much effort to deal with.
besides, who want's curse of years, when you can have a 12" bubble of WS/I10 undead?! and timewarp is a better vanhel's when you think about it.

- as for the powers/magic items... if you want the ward save, go the amulet of protection and avoid the stupidity altogether! i'd also drop dark acolyte for aura of dark majesty which can really help make those fear tests begin to work for you!+++

HEROS

Vampire
Master of the Black Arts,
Cadaverous Cuirass,
Book of Arkhan
+++ lose the cuirass since it's not that special on a 2 wound model, while a 5+ save isn't worth it... besides, as a caster set-up, this guy should avoid combat as much as possible! with 2 necros, you likely have enough vanhel's so i'd consider dropping the book as well for say the staff of damnation, or else make this guy a more fighty character.+++

Necromancer
+2 spells,
Black Periapt

Necromancer
+2 spells,
Sceptre de Noirot
+++ the necros don't need all 3 spells... at best i'd give them only 1 extra. for example, you scepter necro is obviously a zombie battery, so just leave him with raise dead & invo.
your other necro can take vanhel's & invo and become a secondary healer & then help re-position your units.+++


Wight King
BSB,
Drakenhoff Banner

Wight King
Sword of Kings
+++ the dickenhoff banner isn't worth it IMHO. far too many ways now to deal with regen... the other one could use the other trickster's shard to turn him into a real character killer!+++

CORE

40 Ghouls
ghast

40 skeletons
Full Command,
Banner of Hellfire

60 zombies

2 Corpse Carts
unholy loadstones
+++ you're better off getting more ghouls instead of buying zombies... zombies are just abyssmally terrible now in 8th! you're better off just raising a unit from scratch since you'll give up 50VP's when they die!
spend the pts on more ghouls or skellies...

also, those skellies are just too big for a bunker... seriously! a bunker unit is not ment to actually fight, just hang around a character so he can't be picked out. drop them to 20-25 and give 'em a lichbone pennant for some quick MR.
then you can build another unit of ghouls, or else go for a spear-armed skellie unit to take better advantage of the hoard rules.

i also personally don't like corpse carts due to how fragile they are, even when hiding at the back... since they're so big, they can still be picked out by missile fire/magic. i find that usually, the pts can be better spent on units that can actually kill stuff!+++


SPECIAL

40 Grave Guard
Full Command
Banner of the Barrows

RARE

Varghulf
+++ vargs honestly suck in larger games... they're fragile and there's too many ways around regen now. plus, as your only fast unit, there's nothing else to provide a diversion for it, thus you can expect every early missile shot/war machine to target it.

i'd try and look for a way to get perhaps a black coach (which will become fairly resilient), or else blood knights to provide your hard-hitting hamer unit.+++
honestly, i think you'll find that your force has no serious punch... sure the grave guard are always nasty, but overall, your army is just a bunch of weak core units and casters.
ghouls don't make for good hoard units as you lose attacks with the rear ranks... if you're looking for hoard units, that's what skellies w/spears are for! the ghouls are much better when used 7-wide (to max their base frontage), and then built deep so that you can deny your opponent the steadfast bonus!
zombies simple suck... T2 is crippling to say the least. even thing like gobbos, skaven & basic human troops will drop handfulls of zombies, and the helm is better used elsewhere! best use for zombies is to raise 'em and then hit an enemy's flank/rear via vanhel's and just tarpit them there all game!

i'd also re-think your BSB. the dickenhoff banner is just hugely over-costed now with how regen works... why not try the screaming banner to help those fear tests become something to actually be feared?!! combined with aura of dark majesty, that grave guard unit should become a truely horrifying prospect for any units who are forced to test for fear!

i'd also try and look for a way to get some fast support for your varg, (like perhaps a second one), or else swap him for say a unit of cairn wraiths or blood knights who will hit alot harder, and take alot more effortto deal with!

anyways, hope this helps,
cheers!
 
#3 ·
Thanks for the advice, you make some great points. About the Lord; I was thinking of using Lore of Vamp mostly for Summon Undead Horde and Curse of Years, but after going through the Lore of Light again, I think you might be right that it is more usefull for all the buffs. I think you also might be right about the excess equipment on the other characters and the bunker size.

However, I disagree about the Drakenhoff banner and the ghoul horde though. I've seen games where that combo works wonders. Even without spell buffs, and the occasional flamming peasant bowman hit on the units negating regen, the volume of poisoned attacks they put out is quite good in horde formation, and their staying power is decent (between regen and invocation spam). It also forces your opponents to have to choose between the ghoul unit and the grave guard as both are hard hitting and difficult to deal with.

I never particularly liked the Varg, and just put him in to help out a bit in combat here and there. I'll probably switch him out for the cairn wraights (not a fan of blood knights, trying to go with an infantry theme) though. Do you think it's worthwhile to drop the two corpse carts for 1 black coach? I was a little worried about it affecting my own magic phase too much, and have never used it before or even seen it used. It sounds great on paper though...

In any case, thanks for the advice!
 
#4 ·
no worries! and as for the coach question; YES!!! the coach gets retardedly powerful, and quite quickly if you're lucky! typically by turn 3/4, it's maxed out and now your opponent has to think about what to do to counter a;
- T6, 3+ armour/4+ ward
- flying
- ethereal!
- MR3
- hatred
- killing blow!!! (including the ponies & impacts!)
very likely one the most over-powered units in the game... (well, short of anything with the words 'daemon of chaos' in it's name...) just be sure to properly support it with another unit since like all chariots, it can't take on ranked units by itself.

wraiths are awsome, though i'm not a fan of banshees. they're good, but for their pts costs now, they just don't do enough damage to really warrent the pts cost... (that's half a wraith when you think about it!) the wraiths are great for sending at the gunlines, (expect the skaven or dwarven varities) and their only real weaknesses are magic spells and enemy characters alongside other ethereal & daemon units...

cheers!
 
#6 ·
Interesting idea, I'll play around with the numbers and see if I can fit another lord in without going over 25%. I'm also thinking about droping one necromancer, the varg, and changing some equipment in favour of the black coach, giving my lord Master of the Black Arts (after all, guaranteed 4 power dice before rolling for winds of magic is pretty sweet), amoung other things. Or maybe I'll keep the necromancer and just drop the corpse carts, which is a shame since I really like the models but they are overpriced for what they do. Oh well, thanks for the advice.
 
#7 ·
just keep in mind that taking 2 vamp lords at 3k means you'll have roughly 375 to spend per vamp... this can make things a little tight in terms of gear/powers depending on what you want them to do, but the plus side is you can have a caster general who can hide, while still getting a damn fine combat character too!

for example, you could go a route like;
vamp lord (general) w/Lv3, forbidden lore - light, flayed hauberk, MftBA, = 365. place in bunker behind the lines!
vamp lord w/forbidden lore - beasts, red fury, swift slaying sword, wristbands, hellsteed = 375 pts. fly about and kill smaller units on your own!

beasts on the second vamp is really to help buff a nearby unit (or even the vamp himself), with wildform and then cast savage beast on himself so he can go ape-shit nuts over things like warmachines, smaller missile units, fast cav, warbeasts & lone wizards... (as not much is going to survive 7 re-rolling, S8 attacks that then generate additional attacks per wound suffered!)

still, tactics like this work better when you can afford to properly tool-out the fighty vamp lord... even at 3k, i'd personally just stick to 1 vamp lord set-up as a caster, and then if you fighty, go for wight kings!

cheers!
 
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