Hello all,
Ok to begin with I'm going to chat a little about my very favorites the Vampires. These guys were one of my first ever armies and has remained loved for over a decade for several reasons. Firstly, they're Vampires! Everyone knows about vampires, everyone loves vampires, everyone secretly wants to be/sleep with a vampire. They're scary and dapper and bad ass and awesome. And it really shows in their models. They are a beautiful army and when laid out on the table top you really do get a strong sense of a shambling horde that can not be stopped. So that's always been a big draw card towards playing V.C.
Secondly, they have an amazing spectrum in terms of play style. You can go in combat heavy, throw a lord on a dragon, tool him up with magic items and powers, buff him with spells and then watch this always striking first, with at least 6 attacks generating more attacks for every wound he causes, allowing for no armor saves AND self healing dickhead tear shit up for six turns while your poor old opponent sinks further and further into his chair.
Or you can go magic heavy. Vampires have some of the best magic in the game and boy they know how to use it. My personal favorite style is the good ol'fashion tar-pit. A master necromancer and a couple of level 2 casters can raise a lot. And I mean a lot. Sure they're only skellies and zombies but when you start to summon them on mass it can be a real game changer. It's simple, summon faster than your enemy can kill? You win. And don't forget that these little chaps don't flee, so as long as you keep bolstering their ranks, who ever is in combat with them ain't going anywhere. It's a wonderful feeling having someone like Tyrion stuck in combat with a unit of zombies that is slowly getting bigger and bigger and bigger...
And then of course you can make a combination of combat and magic. For this you'll have some heavy units, black knights or grave guard maybe some vargheists or something. Then a couple of blocks of zombies, skeletons or ghouls. A vampire lord is good to have with his magic buffed up too, so he can cast and fight, then some necromancers for more magic support. Then it's a bit of a maintenance game. When things die you bring them back. Hold things up with your blocks of crappy troops and wait for the heavy hitters to arrive. Basically the combination can be done with any units in the list it's just a matter of balance and a feel for how they work together.
The vamps have some lovely units with some special tricks. People tend to think of the V.C army as terribly slow, which is true in a sense -the whole no march thing- but in another way they can be super fast. There are units who can fly (terrorgheist, fell bats or even a bloody vamp on foot if you wanted to) and then there's all the ethereal stuff. Banshee's, spirit hosts and wraiths can all move through terrain. Black knights' steeds count as ethereal so they can pass through too and hexwraiths aren't just ethereal but they can move through bloody units! And don't forget about summoning. Raise Dead has a range of 18", So who needs speedy zombies when you can just make a new unit where ever you need it?
Personally I'm still constantly tinkering with my list. Tactically I've found the tar-pit in tandem with a terrorgheist and a banshee works very well. Essentially trap an enemy unit in a big unit of zombies and then fly next to it and scream, scream, scream. You have to be careful though because the terrogheist isn't great in combat, not terrible but not great. I've also been enjoying the varghulf. He's pretty quick with movement 8" and he's vampiric so he CAN march. He has regeneration and is pretty descent in combat. Again he works great flanking an enemy unit already stuck in combat. And for his punch I think he's relatively cheap. I don't know I just think he's a solid little monster. Speaking of, he counts as a monster so he gets his stomp too. If your playing a mass infantry list a corpse cart is great. Being able to re-roll a D6 to see how many models get back up is brilliant and suddenly having everything within 6" of it always strike first can be a real shock to your enemy. Talk about 28 days later zombies!
I guess for me the Vampire Counts are a real mix of tactically strong game play and thematic awesomeness. I'll have a battle soon and let you know what I've used and how it went. I think my mate Manton will be using his pretty little high elves so it should be a good fight. All this end of times stuff has come in for vampires too but I am yet to really look at any of it (mostly due to price. $150 for the Nagash model then $140 for his rules? Fuck you GW). I'll probably put up some more of my ideas about each unit and some other rants on the other armies/games I play. I'll also be posting more pics of what I've been painting and any cool modelling stuff I've been up to. Any way if you got this far through the blog (my first ever!) then thank you and feel free to ask any questions or scream internet abuse at me.
Cheerio,
Jimzan the Everliving.
Ok to begin with I'm going to chat a little about my very favorites the Vampires. These guys were one of my first ever armies and has remained loved for over a decade for several reasons. Firstly, they're Vampires! Everyone knows about vampires, everyone loves vampires, everyone secretly wants to be/sleep with a vampire. They're scary and dapper and bad ass and awesome. And it really shows in their models. They are a beautiful army and when laid out on the table top you really do get a strong sense of a shambling horde that can not be stopped. So that's always been a big draw card towards playing V.C.
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| Skeleton Warriors |
Secondly, they have an amazing spectrum in terms of play style. You can go in combat heavy, throw a lord on a dragon, tool him up with magic items and powers, buff him with spells and then watch this always striking first, with at least 6 attacks generating more attacks for every wound he causes, allowing for no armor saves AND self healing dickhead tear shit up for six turns while your poor old opponent sinks further and further into his chair.
Or you can go magic heavy. Vampires have some of the best magic in the game and boy they know how to use it. My personal favorite style is the good ol'fashion tar-pit. A master necromancer and a couple of level 2 casters can raise a lot. And I mean a lot. Sure they're only skellies and zombies but when you start to summon them on mass it can be a real game changer. It's simple, summon faster than your enemy can kill? You win. And don't forget that these little chaps don't flee, so as long as you keep bolstering their ranks, who ever is in combat with them ain't going anywhere. It's a wonderful feeling having someone like Tyrion stuck in combat with a unit of zombies that is slowly getting bigger and bigger and bigger...
 |
| Zombies |
And then of course you can make a combination of combat and magic. For this you'll have some heavy units, black knights or grave guard maybe some vargheists or something. Then a couple of blocks of zombies, skeletons or ghouls. A vampire lord is good to have with his magic buffed up too, so he can cast and fight, then some necromancers for more magic support. Then it's a bit of a maintenance game. When things die you bring them back. Hold things up with your blocks of crappy troops and wait for the heavy hitters to arrive. Basically the combination can be done with any units in the list it's just a matter of balance and a feel for how they work together.
The vamps have some lovely units with some special tricks. People tend to think of the V.C army as terribly slow, which is true in a sense -the whole no march thing- but in another way they can be super fast. There are units who can fly (terrorgheist, fell bats or even a bloody vamp on foot if you wanted to) and then there's all the ethereal stuff. Banshee's, spirit hosts and wraiths can all move through terrain. Black knights' steeds count as ethereal so they can pass through too and hexwraiths aren't just ethereal but they can move through bloody units! And don't forget about summoning. Raise Dead has a range of 18", So who needs speedy zombies when you can just make a new unit where ever you need it?
 |
| Cairn Wraith |
Personally I'm still constantly tinkering with my list. Tactically I've found the tar-pit in tandem with a terrorgheist and a banshee works very well. Essentially trap an enemy unit in a big unit of zombies and then fly next to it and scream, scream, scream. You have to be careful though because the terrogheist isn't great in combat, not terrible but not great. I've also been enjoying the varghulf. He's pretty quick with movement 8" and he's vampiric so he CAN march. He has regeneration and is pretty descent in combat. Again he works great flanking an enemy unit already stuck in combat. And for his punch I think he's relatively cheap. I don't know I just think he's a solid little monster. Speaking of, he counts as a monster so he gets his stomp too. If your playing a mass infantry list a corpse cart is great. Being able to re-roll a D6 to see how many models get back up is brilliant and suddenly having everything within 6" of it always strike first can be a real shock to your enemy. Talk about 28 days later zombies!
 |
| My lovely Terrorgheist. |
I guess for me the Vampire Counts are a real mix of tactically strong game play and thematic awesomeness. I'll have a battle soon and let you know what I've used and how it went. I think my mate Manton will be using his pretty little high elves so it should be a good fight. All this end of times stuff has come in for vampires too but I am yet to really look at any of it (mostly due to price. $150 for the Nagash model then $140 for his rules? Fuck you GW). I'll probably put up some more of my ideas about each unit and some other rants on the other armies/games I play. I'll also be posting more pics of what I've been painting and any cool modelling stuff I've been up to. Any way if you got this far through the blog (my first ever!) then thank you and feel free to ask any questions or scream internet abuse at me.
Cheerio,
Jimzan the Everliving.
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