Specialist Arms Forum

Warmaster => [WM] Warmaster Fantasy Discussion => Topic started by: eastern barbarian on May 25, 2011, 12:49:30 PM

Title: Vampire Counts army- your opinions?
Post by: eastern barbarian on May 25, 2011, 12:49:30 PM
I never ever played against them, but really kind of fancy getting them :)
What are your opinions about that army? It looks to me like it is very slow actually, especially with lack of initiative charges. Is it at all competitive? I am not massive fan of super-competitive armies, but I do like them to be able to win, thats why I got rid of my orcs.
Title: Re: Vampire Counts army- your opinions?
Post by: captPiett on May 25, 2011, 04:18:00 PM
You can definitely win with VC. Their main drawback is a lack of shooting, but their strengths are 1) a ridiculously high breakpoint with all those skeletons and zombies; and 2) large numbers of cavalry. They also have a lot of units that cause terror.

Being undead, command can be a problem. However, in general much of the army should avoid contact with the enemy anyway (those same skeletons and zombies melt away pretty quickly). If you concentrate on getting the heavy infantry (grave guard, ethereal host) and cav (knights) into contact, command becomes much simpler. Dire wolves are good on the attack, but fragile.
Title: Re: Vampire Counts army- your opinions?
Post by: BlackEd on May 25, 2011, 04:56:04 PM
Plus they look so frickin' cool!

I picked up a VC army this spring.  Now I just have to finish painting it!
Title: Re: Vampire Counts army- your opinions?
Post by: eastern barbarian on May 25, 2011, 05:02:01 PM
ok, thanks for the info guys
Title: Re: Vampire Counts army- your opinions?
Post by: Bel on May 25, 2011, 05:17:57 PM
You would make the following:
- maximise the number of characters, so command will not be an issue (your units ignore the enemy in 20cm modifier)
- don't forget the 'raise dead' spell - use it to overlap the enemy and/or to add support to your own units
- use bloodlines (I prefer von Carstein or Lamia but this depends of your army) - this can bring you a lot of fan
Title: Re: Vampire Counts army- your opinions?
Post by: azrael71 on May 26, 2011, 07:55:25 AM
Yeah, use raise dead for the win.
I also like the bloodlines rule, from the original ruleset.
I always take some dogs to cover my heavy cav on approach and then once their main function is done I just use them to harass the enemy.
Title: Re: Vampire Counts army- your opinions?
Post by: eastern barbarian on May 26, 2011, 03:36:12 PM
bloodlines rule??? I am not sure I noticed it in the book i downloaded..
Title: Re: Vampire Counts army- your opinions?
Post by: eastern barbarian on May 26, 2011, 06:42:21 PM
apart from that- anybody knows good alternatives to GW from other companies?
Title: Re: Vampire Counts army- your opinions?
Post by: Bel on May 27, 2011, 03:32:27 AM
bloodlines rule??? I am not sure I noticed it in the book i downloaded..

From an old version of the list:

1. VAMPIRE COUNTS BLOODLINE RULES
Each Vampire Lord is the direct descendent of one
of the great vampire families (Von Carstein, Necrarch,
Blood Dragon, Lahmia or Strigoi) of ancient times,
sharing the same blood and characteristics of the family.
When choosing a Vampire Counts army you may choose
a bloodline for the Vampire Lord at the points cost
indicated below. Each bloodline has a different effect
on the Vampire Lord, giving him a special ability, as
noted below.
VON CARSTEIN
Von Carstein (20 pts) – Once per battle the Vampire
Lord may add +1 to his Command value. You must say
that you are using this ability before the roll is made.
LAHMIA
Lahmia (30 pts) – Once per battle the Vampire Lord
may force one enemy character to re-roll a successful
Command Roll.
NECRARCH
Necrarch (20 pts) – Once per battle the Vampire
Lord may re-roll one failed attempt to cast a spell.
BLOOD DRAGON
Blood Dragon (10 pts) – Once per battle, for one
Combat phase (including pursuits but not advances), any
missed attacks made by the Vampire Lord may be re-rolled.
This is including bonuses for magic items, but not
for being mounted on a monstrous or chariot mount.
STRIGOI
Strigoi (15 pts)– Once per battle the Vampire Lord
may double his Attacks characteristic from +2 to +4 for
one Combat phase (including pursuits but not advances).
Title: Re: Vampire Counts army- your opinions?
Post by: eastern barbarian on May 27, 2011, 01:23:51 PM
thanks a lot, interesting :)
Title: Re: Vampire Counts army- your opinions?
Post by: BlackEd on May 27, 2011, 02:53:14 PM
I loved those bloodline rules!  They make the list more interesting.  The friend I used to play again would regularly kick my butt with the VC.
Title: Re: Vampire Counts army- your opinions?
Post by: eastern barbarian on May 27, 2011, 02:59:40 PM
are they "officially" (as far as official is the word that can be used with Warmaster; ) approved?
Title: Re: Vampire Counts army- your opinions?
Post by: Bel on May 27, 2011, 03:29:03 PM
they are balanced and don't cause strong influence on the gameplay. if u mean tournaments for 'officially approved' then this depends of judges only. Just ask the organisers.
Title: Re: Vampire Counts army- your opinions?
Post by: graymatterblues on May 27, 2011, 05:02:25 PM
They are no more or less game influencing than say magic items are normally and they do come at a price. VON CARSTEIN's being the most useful I think. Over all I think they are neat and add a lot of extra character to the characters.
Title: Re: Vampire Counts army- your opinions?
Post by: Brutalrage on May 28, 2011, 03:49:58 PM
me being not the uber knowledgable person here to ask, as i havent seen em in action, however lookin through the list, id say this is a well rounded army, with cheap troops for high BP, plenty cav, some hard to shift troops (defending a vp) and strong magic with the raise dead spell... a good army id say :)
Title: Re: Vampire Counts army- your opinions?
Post by: Guthwine on May 28, 2011, 07:29:38 PM
They definetly are a strong army, especially since they are the only undead race that has access to standart 3/3/4+ knights and tougher infantry (grave guards). In a addition you have an extra caster and the combination of the movement spell + flyers can be devastating.

Another bonus is that you have acces to a second terror causing mount, which can even break even the hardest units.

The bloodlines thing looks nice but I think the Lhamia power is way to powerful, as there is nothing like that available to other races. (At least it looks for me like that on paper, 4+ chance maybe?) I know that would cause alot of cursing if I were on the receiving end of that. :D
Title: Re: Vampire Counts army- your opinions?
Post by: Bel on May 28, 2011, 08:01:39 PM
A lot of terrible cursing, yeah. It's just a little surprise, a re-roll with same modifiers  ;D
Title: Re: Vampire Counts army- your opinions?
Post by: graymatterblues on May 29, 2011, 02:54:21 AM
That power would be useless against me since I hardly ever make my command rolls anyway. Ha!  ::)
Title: Re: Vampire Counts army- your opinions?
Post by: Brutalrage on May 29, 2011, 10:55:10 AM
personally idk if id use bloodlines extra rule, if id use any id use necrarch,  cause casting that raise dead spell is oh so important :)
Title: Re: Vampire Counts army- your opinions?
Post by: David Wasilewski on May 29, 2011, 11:20:25 AM
The area VC really struggle with is in taking/defending terrain from good quality infantry as they don't have any particularly 'heavy' infantry.

The only answer, in my opinion is to max out on ethereal infantry.

Dave
Title: Re: Vampire Counts army- your opinions?
Post by: Carrington on May 30, 2011, 03:24:43 PM
Though I suspect this is much less of a problem for VC than for Tomb Kings.
Title: Re: Vampire Counts army- your opinions?
Post by: Brutalrage on May 30, 2011, 07:39:39 PM
tomb kings have those skull chucka's which can be used to remove units from defended positions