[avihai]

I want to assemble a Combat based VC army with a Blood Dragon Theme. Here goes.

Heroes

Vampire (w/ Black Knights)
-Dread Knight
-Infinite Hatred
-Book of Arkhan
185 pts

Vampire (w/ Grave Guard)
-Avatar of Death (2 hw)
-Supernatural Horror
-BSB
-Banner of the Barrows
205 pts

Vampire (w/ Skeletons)
-Lord of the Dead
-Dark Acolyte
-Tomb Blade
-Flayed Hauberk
195 pts

Necromancer
-Black Peripet
-Corpse Cart
-Unholy Loathstone
170 pts

Core

(19 ) Skeleton Warriors
-Hw + Shields
-CMD
172 pts

(20 ) Skeleton Warriors
-Hw + Shields
-CMD
180 pts

(5) Dire Wolves
40 pts

(5) Dire wolves
40 pts

Special

(19) Grave Guard
-Great Weapons
-CMD
277 pts

(9) Black Knights
-Barding
-CMD
-Banner of the Dead Legion
317 pts

Rare

Black Coach
200 pts

Total 1981

Mounted Vampire goes with the Black Knights and will form the Flanking force along with the Black Coach. He carries the Book of Arkhan to allow this force the extra movement.

The Battle Standard Bearer will join the grave guard. He Causes Terror granting the Guard the same ability.

The Final Vampire will Join a skeleton Unit. His abilities and items allow him to raise Skeleton units above starting size and Keep those units strong.

The Necromancer Will run with or near the other Skeleton unit. Keeping him central will be key in dropping tar-pits of Zombies.

The Skeletons will act as an anvil with the Grave guard acting as a close range Hammer and the Black knights Flanking along with the Black Coach.

The Dire wolves will act as shields and possibly bait for the various units.

Zombies will be raised in order to guide the Enemy unit's into more advantages areas and traps.


I haven't played Fantasy in about 6 years and I'm looking for criticism on both my list and my Strategy.
Thank you.

 

[experiment 626]

Heroes
Vampire (w/ Black Knights)
-Dread Knight
-Infinite Hatred
-Book of Arkhan
185 pts
+++ your general should be a lord... i know they're expensive, but honestly, you don't want your general to be just a 2W/T4 model! he's so easy to kill, and then you've pretty much lost the game as your army crumbles...
a good, fighty lord could take the following powers: red fury, beguile, dreadknight/avatar. that's a fairly beastly combo right there, and can be supported by any number of magic items.
make sure you also pay for the Lv3 upgrade too, since you'll want the extra dispel dice!+++

Vampire (w/ Grave Guard)
-Avatar of Death (2 hw)
-Supernatural Horror
-BSB
-Banner of the Barrows
205 pts
+++ i'd lose horror & the banner of the barrows... best idea would be to actually turn this guy into a wight king w/BSB, nightshroud, sword of kings. a good character killer and he adds a bit more combat res too! plus, wight kings are alot harder to kill off than vampires!+++

Vampire (w/ Skeletons)
-Lord of the Dead
-Dark Acolyte
-Tomb Blade
-Flayed Hauberk
195 pts
+++ tomb blade is crap. it can't combo w/lord of the dead and thus it isn't nearly as helpful as you'd think it would be...+++

Necromancer
-Black Peripet
-Corpse Cart
-Unholy Loathstone
170 pts
+++ take balefire instead. your magic defences are a bit weak, so hampering your opponent's casting ability will help you out alot more than simply raisng an extra body here and there...+++

Core

(19 ) Skeleton Warriors
-Hw + Shields
-CMD
172 pts

(20 ) Skeleton Warriors
-Hw + Shields
-CMD
180 pts
+++ start your skellies out at 15 strong. you've got a lord of the dead power, so you can throw out 4 single castings of invocation/turn. that should be enough to bulk out your skellies... use the extra pts to give each unit a magical banner. good choices are; war banner, banner of the dead legion, or banner of hellfire on a spear-armed unit...+++

(5) Dire Wolves
40 pts

(5) Dire wolves
40 pts
+++ a few things:
a) dire wolves don't count for your minimum core choices, so you'll need another skellies unit to make this a legal army!
b) wolves are best used at 7 strong w/doomwolf. basically, this way you can tarpit a big monster like a high elf star dragon for a turn and set him up for a counter charge... you charge in with the wolves, challenge w/doom wolf and likely lose by 5, thus leaving you with 1 wolf holding the enemy character in place!+++

Special

(19) Grave Guard
-Great Weapons
-CMD
277 pts
+++ give the unit the banner of the barrows. also, since they have great weapons, make sure you run them 7 models wide to maximise your BtB contacts!+++

(9) Black Knights
-Barding
-CMD
-Banner of the Dead Legion
317 pts
+++ too many. i never run more than 7 or 8 in a unit. you don't need ranks, just a couple of additional bodies so that missile fire/magic don't totally nerf your unit!
also, i'd give them royal banner of strigos since these guys are all about the charge... hatred will serve much better than a +1 to-hit since you don't want these guys in a protracted combat!
finally, never, ever, EVER! stick a vampire into a unit of black knights!!! if you do, you really slow them down sicne the knights will lose their ethereal movement ability... (as vampires can't ride skeletal steeds - only nightmares...)+++

Rare

Black Coach
200 pts
+++ you don't have enough power dice to really warrent a coach... untill it gets upto 3/4 on it's evocation chart, the coach is simply an over-priced chariot that can still be one-shot killed by anything S7! if you want a coach, then you likely want to aim at getting 10-12 or so power dice into your list so that first turn or two, you can use your own wizards to power it up a bit before sending it off into battle.
right now i'd say lose the coach so you can upgrade your general to a vampire lord!+++

Total 1981

Mounted Vampire goes with the Black Knights and will form the Flanking force along with the Black Coach. He carries the Book of Arkhan to allow this force the extra movement.
+++ never stick vampires into black knight units since you only nerf the knights... if you want to pur a vampire into a unit of knights, then you're going to look at getting yourself some blood knights! give the vampire the blood drinker to help raise back any casulties and your blood knights will become one of your most reliable units provided to take care to protect them from their frenzy!+++

The Battle Standard Bearer will join the grave guard. He Causes Terror granting the Guard the same ability.
+++ terror isn't as good as you might think it is, and it definately isn't worth paying pts for when there's much better vampire powers out there! also, wight kings make much better BSB's since they're alot harder to kill than a vampire... they're also cheaper in pts too, so they'll give away fewer VP's in the end...+++

The Skeletons will act as an anvil with the Grave guard acting as a close range Hammer and the Black knights Flanking along with the Black Coach.
The Dire wolves will act as shields and possibly bait for the various units.
Zombies will be raised in order to guide the Enemy unit's into more advantages areas and traps.
+++ holding your center with skeletons is a bit iffy since they're so squishy... i typically prefer to form my battleline wit hthe grave guard in the center & skeleton unit to either flank. your knights should be using their ethereal movement to move quicker and into trickier positions for your opponent to counter... (ie: they ignor terrain, so moving them into woods makes it very difficult for most units to try and counter them!)
the coach likely won't get very far on it's evocation chart since you've got a very limited amount of power dice... 7 dice max/turn isn't going to power it up very fast at all! the key with the coach is to try and get it that MR3 as soon as possible. this makes it almost impossible to easily deal with unless you either make a bad charge or else your opponent is packing a serious amount of S7+ artillery! (ie: dwarves!)+++

I haven't played Fantasy in about 6 years and I'm looking for criticism on both my list and my Strategy.
Thank you.

well, a few things:
a) get yourself a vampire lord to act as your general! they really are worth every point, and they're alot harder to deal with than just a vampire...
b) you need a 3rd core unit. remember, only skellies, ghouls & zombies count towards your minimum requirements!
c) lose the coach. it synergises best in magic-heavy armies where it can get lots of dice to roll on it's evocation of death chart!
d) re-work your vampires a bit. powers like horror or aura of dark majesty for example aren't nearly as good as most of the others... good powers are things like red fury, infinite hatred, beguile, forbidden lore, master of the black arts, dark acolyte, walking death, dreadknight/avatar and summon abilities
also, with vampires especially, don't try and multi-task them. give each of your vampires a set role to fullfill and then kit them out for that role... with only half the pts for powers compared to lords, vampires really can't multi-task at all! lords can a bit, but it's still best to aim for a specific role with them too.

anyways, i hope this helps,
cheers!